May 19th, 2008 |
Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon. The earthquake in Wen Chuan has taken a heavy toll and seriously destroyed communications facilities and industrial production. According the initial statistics, 616 switch offices, 16507 wireless base stations, 10960 kilometers of optic fiber have been damaged, which cut off communications in 7 counties and many towns in heavily-hit areas of Sichuan Province, and 5 counties in Gansu province including Zhouqu, Diebu, Wenxian, Kangxian and Chengxian. Internal communications among switch offices in Shaanxi province was also greatly affected. Manufacturing and mining businesses in Sichuan , Chongqing and Gansu have suffered big losses. In Sichuan province, 14,207 industrial businesses were hit by the earthquake, resulting in a direct economic loss of RMB 67 billion Yuan, and leaving 1387 dead and 9798 injured. After the disaster, the Ministry of Industry and Informatization immediately set up the Leading Group for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation headed by Minister Li Yizhong, following the decisions and deployment made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council. An emergency program was initiated and the Ministry has been working close together with the related departments and organizations to carry out the work of disaster mitigation. Minister Li Yizhong and the leaders of the major telecom operators have been stationed in the disaster-hit area, taking command of the work on telecommunications system repairing and disaster mitigation. Under the leadership of the National Headquarters for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation, as of 8:00 on May 19th, the telecommunications sector has sent out 26,000 people for repairing, dispatched 391 emergency telecoms vehicles, 979 satellite telephones, 7422 power generators, over 2000 sets of emergency communications equipment and equipment for repairing, 1000 cells specifically for the satellite telephones and 150 sets of field power supply equipment. 496 MHz of satellite transponder resources have been utilized and 900 million pieces of short messages were sent to provide emergency prompts and to guide the disaster mitigation. The operational situation of communication repairment in seven heavily damaged counties. For the fixed communication, the communication trunk cables in five heavily damaged counties including Wen Chuan, Li county, Mao county, Qing Chuan, Ping Wu have maintained normal communication with the outside until eight o'clock on 19th. The main cables in Hei Shui county were opened with hard work at seventeen o'clock twenty eight on 18th evening. After debugging, they all have been restored the external communication service at twenty o'clock forty eight. In Bei Chuan County , emergency communications vehicles are still used to maintain communication with the outside. For the mobile communication, repair staff has been able to guarantee the external mobile communication of the seven heavily damaged counties with the help of communication equipment such as emergency communications vehicles and satellite telephones until eight o'clock on 19th. The progress of communication repairing and safeguard in towns. There are 151 towns in the quake-hit area, 76 of which have had communication services being available after the repairing and the repairing work is still going on in the rest of the towns. During the communication repairing in towns, IDR satellite communication is still the mainly used equipment with assistance of VSAT satellite communication equipment to solve the external communication problem. 80 sets of IDR mobile base stations have been conveyed to Cheng Du. Seven sets of the equipment have been conveyed by air on May 18th to towns where rescue forces had arrived and another one set of the IDR equipment were conveyed to the town with road connection being available. As of nine o'clock on 19th, nine sets of IDR equipment have been conveyed to the quake-hit counties and towns (8 by air, 1 by road transportation), of which two of them near Wenchuan and Gaocun of Pingwu have already been opened to enable mobile services while the rest seven sets have not been put into use. 100 sets of VSAT equipments have been gathered in Cheng Du. 37 sets of these equipments have been dropped to towns and surrounding areas by air successfully, 16 sets of which have opened service until 8 o'clock on 19th. Furthermore, under the unified arrangements of disaster headquarters in Cheng Du on 18th, 12 sets of VSAT equipments are planned to provide for the disaster aid and command, which are waiting for airlift. Other 51 sets of VSAT equipments and technical staff are on standby. If transport capacity permits, more IDR mobile equipments and VSAT equipments are planned to dropped by air to towns where rescue forces had arrived today and tommorrow. Provide public communication service for the disaster area and safeguard the smooth progress of rescue work. Make stride forward to the administrative villages. In accordance with the requirement of advancing the aid work from disaster headquarters of the State Council, we have deployed that communication repairment and safeguard must advance to the administrative villages following rescue forces closely. VSAT equipments and satellite telephones will be dropped to pivot administrative villages by air to extend communication coverage area with great effort. Support other departments' rescue work and repair public communication. Meanwhile, we will coordinate with disaster headquarters of the State Council actively to guarantee the priority of electricity and oil supply to the communication equipments. Guarantee of Radio Communications The Administration for radio communications has assigned to China Telecom 800 MHz of digital trunking frequencies for earthquake relief communications; delivered 200 satellite phone sets to the quake-affected areas, for Ir-star-based satellite telephone shall be used for quake relief in line with Communication Department and Operations Department of the GSD of GSD; 24-hour monitoring on aviation frequencies could avoid interference imposed on frequencies used for quake relief logistics and transporting of the wounded. The State Radio Monitoring Center will allocate three shortwave radio stations for relief efforts. Dispatch and Transportation of Rescue Aids From May 13, the Ministry has collected more than 130 pieces of information related to relief logistics and equipment supplies from news agencies, made timely contact and communication with the local governments of quake-stricken areas and relevant departments, and took an active part in coordinating and transporting rescue equipments -- 6 large generators, 245 small generators, 38 excavators, 7 cranes, 70 cutting machines, 300 loaders, 400 Jacks, 40 tons of steel to rescue teams working with Sichuan Provincial Government; secured 400 tents and 3,000 diamond saw blades for cutting concrete; assisted relevant departments in transporting 200 generators and 1,200 cutting machines to Chengdu; managed to secure disinfectant drugs for the efforts of disaster relief and epidemic prevention. And from May 17, the Ministry has initiated the transportation of 200 tons of SDIC to quake-stricken areas from Jiangsu in succession, and two batches totaling 138 tons have been shipped out. 25-ton Calcium Hypochlorite collected has arrived in Dujiangyan at 7:30 this morning. Restoration and Reconstruction The Rescue Headquarters of the State Council has set up 9 Working Groups. The Ministry of Industry and Information acts as the focal point of Restoration Group which was set up on May 14, with National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Commerce as its members. With the unified commanding of the Rescue Headquarters, holding on the principles of human-oriented, life before production and dedication to rescue, restoration, planning and reconstruction in the mean time, the Group improves and intensified the coordination and cooperation mechanism, developing and implementing relevant policies and measures, taking industrial and agricultural activities back to track. Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) and State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) have made emergency planning as well. Relevant enterprises and institutions also take the initiative in following and assisting the overall planning, contributing to the relief endeavor, making arrangements for relief efforts, dispatching relief teams and equipments, putting their potentials into full play. The earthquake resistance and disaster relief will finally be a success under the strong leadership of the Central Party and the State Council, and with the united efforts of the Chinese people. Despite all the difficulties and with our strong desires, we will contribute more to the home rebuilding and production recovery for the people in the disaster-stricken areas. Now, my colleague and I would like to take questions.
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