Asia Noble Deeds

We sincerely thank Asia for your noble leadership that extends beyond borders in protecting the health and well-being of those in need throughout the world. Following are some of Asia’s shining examples of goodness, generosity, and unconditional brotherly love in action.
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• After four years of negotiations, Bangladesh and Myanmar begin construction on a “Friendship Road” to facilitate travel and trade between the two countries.
• India’s Brindavan TV, a spiritual television channel, broadcasts a message of world peace and love for all beings, 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
• At a peace conference in Petra, Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert invited Arab national leaders to meet with him and work towards peace in the Middle East.
• India sends first-ever all-female UN peacekeepers to Liberia.
• Presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan meet with hundreds of tribal elders and religious leaders in Kabul at a “Peace Jirga” to cultivate friendship and understanding among all in the region.
• Since laying down their arms for peace last year, Nepalese Maoists have entered the political mainstream and now hold five posts in Nepal’s 22-member, multi-party cabinet.
• Two hundred and fifty Bangladeshi police officers receive the UN peace award for their service to the peacekeeping mission in Côte d'Ivoire.
• Maintaining an agreement made during six-nation negotiations, North Korea shut down her main nuclear facility and successfully passed inspection by UN International Atomic Energy Agency.

• Indonesia’s Ecosystem Restoration Decree protects a 110,000-hectare rainforest as home to 267 bird species, Sumatran tigers, Asian elephants, and clouded leopards.
• India and Cuba sign a two-year accord to promote and collaboratively develop renewable energy through scientific exchanges on wind, solar, biomass, and hydroelectric energy production.
• Aulacese scientists, students, and officials cooperate to protect several endangered turtle species in Âu Lạc (Vietnam).
• The Philippines’ new bio-fuel law will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate the national economy by producing the fuel from locally grown crops.
• China protects her natural resources by strengthening environmental regulations, monitoring industrial sites for pollution, assessing fines for businesses that pollute, and offering financial incentives for businesses to go green.
• India’s recently implemented Energy Conservation Building Code ensures that newly constructed buildings are energy efficient.
• All of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) factories will be completely solar-powered by the end of 2008.
• Hong Kong develops and begins manufacture of concrete paving blocks made from recycled materials that also remove pollution from the air.
• As part of the “Clear Sky with Natural Gas” campaign, Bangkok’s Mass Transit Authority in Thailand is refitting nearly 1,500 diesel buses with new, clean-burning, natural gas engines that will reduce air pollution and decrease fuel costs by about 50%.
• India invests US$595 million in a project supported by China, the European Union, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, to develop sustainable fusion energy and reduce global warming.
• On Green China Day, 5,000 trees are planted to add to the nation’s forests, which have increased from 12% to more than 18% of China’s total area since 1981.
• South Korea donates US$900,000 to Âu Lạc (Việt Nam) for environmental protection and will also share expertise and technology with Aulacese environmental agencies.
• India’s recently formed Council on Climate Change announces plan to re-forest 15 million acres of land with tree plantings.
• In Đà Nẵng, Âu Lạc (Việt Nam) a natural waste by-product is transformed by an eco-friendly power plant into electricity.
• Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), the world’s first carbon neutral international bank, partners with four leading environmental organizations and invests US$100 million to find on climate change solutions in major cities.
• By November 2008, South Korea will finish construction on the world’s largest solar power plant.
• As part of the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a world record 10.5 million trees were planted in one day.

• Formosa (Taiwan) bans the import and export of protected animals in accordance with the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species.
• Indonesia releases 17 pygmy kangaroos, also called dusky pademelons, into their natural habitat in the Papuan rainforest to help restore their populations.
• Malaysia is the third country after Australia and Canada to adopt a “bear detection kit,” which acts as a deterrent from illegal use in traditional medicines.
• China releases six endangered Przewalski horses to join their surviving 1,300 brethren in the Kelameili Nature Reserve, a protected area in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of Northwest China.
• Seventeen cubs of the endangered giant panda species that were born last year at a Panda Protection Center in China's Sichuan Province recently started “kindergarten,” becoming less dependent on their parents and interacting more with their peers.
• After 20 years of diligent efforts to encourage natural reproduction of the once-extinct white stork, Japan was rewarded this year when a chick hatched in the wild for the first time in 40 years.
• To bolster the population of one of the world’s oldest vertebrates, China releases 100,000 Chinese sturgeons into the Yangtze River in Hubei Province.
• A women's collective in the Indian village of Aretika collaborates with the World Land Trust to secure habitat for Indian elephants.
• Effective in 2008, Formosa (Taiwan) declares a total ban on the capture or sale of whale sharks and will instead offer protection to this gentle giant that is like the dolphin in being a friend to humans.

• Iran’s Social Welfare Organization expands medical and financial services for some 1.5 million households currently led by women.
• McDonald’s in India has special menus and preparation methods to meet the needs of India’s many vegetarians.
• Âu Lạc (Vietnam) bans cigarette advertisement and smoking in most public places.
• Thailand bans alcohol advertisements and raises the legal drinking age to 20, with the law also requiring warning labels on pre-packaged alcoholic beverages.
• Smoking and using a cellular phone while driving is banned in the Indian capital city of New Delhi.
• India commits US$22 billion per year to provide her rural poor with life insurance, disability protection, and medical services.
• Hong Kong prohibits smoking indoors and offers free medical counseling to smokers trying to quit.
• The Tibetan Staff Mess in Dharamsala, India has decided to serve only pure vegetarian food for one year.
• Beijing officials guarantee a smoke-free environment for the Olympic Games in 2008, with smoking also prohibited in all Olympic hotels.

• China sends its fifth aid package to Darfur, containing US$5.2 million worth of all-terrain vehicles, ambulances, medical instruments, and mobile homes.
• Âu Lạc (Vietnam) donates US$50,000 in flood relief to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
• In the third such contribution since 2004, India donates US$1.3 million in food aid to Iraq through the UN World Food Program and is also this project’s most generous donor nation.
• South Korea sends US$47 million of flood relief to North Korea in an aid package containing emergency supplies such as blankets, medicine, food, and water as well as materials for reconstruction.
• Japan donates US$4.5 million to Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan, in addition to the US$100 million pledged for the reconstruction of Iraq.
• Pakistan donates US$5 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help some three million Afghan refugees return to their homeland.
• Japan provides US$4.2 million food aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
• The United Arab Emirates sends essential relief supplies to the Badawi refugee camp for Palestinians in northern Lebanon.
• Japan has pledged $2.1 billion in loans to the Asian Development Bank for the creation of eco-friendly infrastructure and the development of renewable energy resources in Asia.
• China relieves the Republic of Congo of US$64 million in debt.
• Saudi Arabia’s fund for development pledges US$39 million for Palestinian refugees in Rafha, to build homes and schools as well as a clinic and community center.
• Japan donates US$2.7 million to Nepal for food aid and agricultural development as part of almost US$60 million total food aid to Nepal.
  
• China sends US$250,000 in aid to the Philippines after Typhoon Durian.
• Âu Lạc (Vietnam) donates US$700,000 towards the reconstruction of Iraq.
• Japan donates US$19.5 million to UNICEF’s polio elimination campaign. The funds will support immunization programs in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Arab governments increase financial aid to the Palestinians by US$150 million.
• China writes off 40% of the debt owed by Côte d’Ivoire and offers more financial and developmental aid.
• India donates 40,000 tons of rice and 10,000 tons of wheat to Bangladesh after recent floods.
• Japan’s Fund for Poverty Reduction donates US$360 million to help Afghanistan rebuild its economy.
• The Israel- Âu Lạc (Vietnam) Humanitarian Mission donates US $50,000 in financial and medical aid, plus free medical care to people in remote areas of rural Âu Lạc.
• Jordan offers free education to some 50,000 Iraqi refugee children.
• China waives the debt of 33 African nations, continuing her tradition of financial and technological support to the continent’s developing countries.
• Japan’s International Cooperation Agency helps improve mathematics and science education in Kenya.
• China creates a US$1 billion fund to finance infrastructure development, agriculture, and manufacturing in Africa.

• With the majority of Indonesian voters being women, Indonesia’s major political parties have agreed to set a 30% minimum quota for women to hold leadership positions.
• The Chinese government embraces transparency by granting public access to financial and economic information and allowing foreign journalists more freedom to conduct research in the country.
• Originally imprisoned for minor crimes, over 700 elderly prisoners are released by the Northeast Indian state of Bihar.
• The Iraqi government promotes national unity by offering cash bonuses for inter-sectarian marriages.
• China brings an end to 2,000 years of agricultural taxes, improving the lives of farmers throughout the country.
• The Palestinian government distributes back pay to more than 10,000 civil servants.
• President Nguyễn Minh Triết of Âu Lạc (Vietnam) declares that all Aulacese (Vietnamese) around the world are welcome to re-enter their homeland, visa-free.
• Pakistan encourages women to enter public service by reserving 20% of Parliamentary seats and 30% of municipal and regional council seats for women.
• Egyptian officials help 3,000 Palestinians obtain passage through Israel as they return to their homes in Gaza.
• China passes a law protecting the rights of property owners, which is welcomed by farmers and landowners as well as entrepreneurs and investors in the coastal cities.
• Nepal drafts a Truth and Reconciliation Bill, bringing political parties together for the nation’s positive future.
• Through government sponsored loans, grants, and vocational training, Âu Lạc (Vietnam) exceeds expectations for poverty reduction in 2006.
• Kyrgyzstan’s President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signs sweeping humanitarian reforms of the national justice system into law, including alternatives to imprisonment, pardons, and the abolition of capital punishment.

• China waives 18 years and US$15.3 million of Guyanese debt.
• Pakistan and Iran agree to cooperate on protecting the environmental resources of both countries.
• Railways linking Âu Lạc (Vietnam), Cambodia and Laos bring prosperity and lasting friendship to the three neighboring countries.
• Japan, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine cooperate on the Valley of Peace project to promote Palestinian agriculture.
• As part of a six-nation agreement, North Korea regains access to US-frozen funds, thus paving the way to the country's nuclear disarmament and reintegration into the international community.
• Chinese president Hu Jintao visits Liberia and pledges US$25 million to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.
• India waives visa requirements for students, teachers, researchers, journalists, and medical patients from neighboring South Asian countries.
• Cargo shipping between North and South Korea resumes for the first time in 50 years.
• New Trans-Asia Highway fuels economic growth in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Âu Lạc (Vietnam).
• Âu Lạc’s (Vietnam) entry into the World Trade Organization normalizes her trade relations with the United States, and the US is now Âu Lạc’s largest export market.
• Thailand’s first Muslim army general, Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, travels to Saudi Arabia to renew relations between the two countries.
• A 2006 paper on National Defense reports that China has signed land-border agreements with 12 of its 14 neighbors, signifying a new era of peaceful border relations.
• Aulacese (Vietnamese) President Nguyễn Minh Triết visits Bejing to speak with Chinese President Hu Jintao about increased cooperation between the two nations.
• Iran opens an embassy in Egypt’s capital city of Cairo in a renewal of diplomatic relations.
• Trains cross the border between North and South Korea for the first time in 56 years.