China and the World Bank have agreed to launch close to 100
research programs relating to the country's economic and social
development during the fiscal years between 2006 and 2008, Li Yong,
vice minister of finance, said in Beijing on Thursday.
Li said program topics include China and the global economy,
poverty reduction and inequality, resources and environment
management, financing for rapid economic growth, and capacity
building for public institutions. The programs would involve major
economic and social sectors.
China will step up its cooperation with the WB for better
development strategies and more funding from the bank in such key
areas as agriculture, public health, education, energy efficiency
and environmental protection, he said.
Li noted that China will also cooperate with the WB in the area
of energy to explore improved ideas for pricing of resources,
reform of the right to use resources, commercialization of
energy-saving technology, development of alternative energy
sources, and urban planning.
China is ready to draw on the rich experience the bank has in
terms of country comparison of social and economic development and
its mature project management mechanism and practices to improve
the country's fiscal budget management mechanism and performance
evaluation of public spending, he acknowledged.
China and the bank will go on expanding their bilateral
knowledge-based cooperation on the footing of mutual benefit for
coordinated economic and social development and balanced global
development, he said.
China and the WB have produced about 140 major economic research
projects in the last 25 years since China resumed its membership
with the bank in 1980.
Moreover, the bank has offered a host of valuable proposals for
the country's reform and opening up to the outside world and
development, he said.
China has become a major recipient of WB loans, which amount to
about US$40 billion.
However, the bank has said that it will no longer offer China
preferential interest rates on loans due to its improved abilities
in commercial financing.
(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2006)