Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi called on Thursday for an all-out effort to ensure food and drug safety through improved supervision, supply and rule of law.

Wu made the call at the opening of the annual working conference on the supervision of food and drug safety. She pledged to ceaselessly deepen the current special safety campaign.

Wu praised the food and drug administrations for achievements in restructuring the supervisory system.

"Food and drug safety is directly linked to the health and safety of the people," she stressed, urging the supervisory authorities to further implement the Scientific Concept of Development, the essence of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which was held last October.

The special campaign on food and drug safety should focus on grassroots units, rural areas and exurbs where food is grown for cities, she said.

She called for carefully implementing measures to ensure food and drug supplies to the Olympics host city of Beijing and five co-host mainland cities -- Shenyang, Qinghuangdao, Tianjin, Qingdao and Shanghai.

Meanwhile, the government would introduce an on-line supervisory network, she said. This would enable the government to ensure the supply of common use pharmaceuticals and give the public easier and more affordable access to common use medicines.

She called for transparent governance in the supervision of food and drug safety and said it should be a fundamental, long-term and strategic task to build up a group of supervisors who are honest, pragmatic and put people's interest first.

At the meeting, Wu gave awards to units and individuals for exemplary work in the field.

Shao Mingli, director of the SFDA, presided over the conference, which was attended by relevant officials from central government departments and leaders of food and drug organs from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2008)