International media reporting on the current session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) is turning its attention to China's efforts to develop impoverished rural areas and narrow the growing gap between rich and poor.

Many outlets say there is still plenty of room for improvement.

"It is great to divert government investment, education, health care and bank loans to these areas. However, it is still a difficult job for these guiding principles to be implemented at the grassroots level," Allen Cheng, a reporter for US-based Bloomberg News, said yesterday after hearing Premier Wen Jiabao's work report, in which he vowed China would build a "new socialist countryside."

Cheng said the government has been promising to spread prosperity to the countryside, home to some 800 million people, for a long time. However, much still needs to be done, he said.

As more than 600 foreign journalists from 35 countries have registered for the coverage of this year's plenary sessions of China's top legislature and political advisory body, Cheng's view is echoed by many of his foreign peers.

Chua Chin Hon, China bureau chief for Straits Times in Singapore, said that it is critical the way in which farmers' problems are handled, such as land in agricultural areas, as protests against corruption and inequality have occurred in rural areas over recent years.

Of most interest is how much money the Chinese government will put into the new countryside project and how policies are implemented.

Ouyang Song, deputy director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, said China is now undergoing a transition that will raise gross domestic product per capita from US$1,000 to US$3,000, which is a golden time for development as well as one for problems.

Chua said that is why as a foreign journalist, he is so interested in China's work to redirect funds by shifting the government's priority in infrastructure investment from urban areas to the countryside.

Mayumi Otani, correspondent for The Mainichi newspaper in Japan, said she wanted to offer something useful for her readers back in Tokyo, in addition to coverage on rural development and education.

"My focus is on resource conservation and energy saving," said Otani, who has been in China for two years, adding that Japanese companies are looking for cooperation with Chinese partners in such fields.

She said Japan is improving equipment and technology on energy saving, and decreasing consumption of materials, and any Chinese policies concerning such business opportunities are warmly welcomed.

"I hope my reports will help expand Sino-Japanese cooperation in energy saving," she said with a smile.

Russian reporter Alexey Novosti said peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits continued to be a major topic for him, as Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian forced the "National Unification Council" and the "National Unification Guidelines" to cease function late last month.

Among other questions on the reporters' minds are national defence and military spending, and the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) for National Economic and Social Development.

(China Daily March 6, 2006)