By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Hyundai Motor will promote an ambitious global environment project in China of turning a desert into grassland.
The nation's top carmaker announced Wednesday that it will begin the five-year joint project with the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) in a 50 square kilometer district in Chakanor, China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.
Hyundai Motor and the KFEM had a signing ceremony for the project with officials from Korea and China present on Wednesday.
The 1,000-meters high mountainous district, located in the Kunshantag desert about 660 kilometers north of Beijing, is one of the main origins of the daunting "yellow dust," a strong dust storm blowing from China every spring.
The project, named ``Hyundai Green Zone,'' is the first environmental one as part of the automaker's social contribution program, the company said.
``Expansion of deserts in China is not only destroying the local ecosystem but also affecting the whole Far East,'' Seol Young-heung, Hyundai Motor vice president, said at the signing ceremony.
``As the issue of environmental movements should be addressed in the global point of view, we decided to embark on this project with a sense of responsibility as a global company.
``We expect this will contribute to the prevention of further desertification in the region and set up an exemplary case of a combined project by companies, non-governmental organizations and governments,'' Seol said.