The First Session of the 10th NPC held a press conference at the
Great Hall of the People at Saturday afternoon. Wang Chunzheng,
vice minister in charge of the State Development Planning
Commission and Li Zibin, deputy director of the Office of the
Leading Group under the State Council for the Development of the
Western Regions, answered questions on poverty reduction and
development in west China.
GDP growth target attainable
The projected 7 percent growth of gross domestic product for 2003
is attainable, said Wang Chunzheng.
Wang told the press conference China's national economy has been
operating quite well in the first two months of this year, with
industrial production, foreign trade, social development and many
other aspects maintaining good development momentum. "The targeted
growth rate is attainable," he said.
He
acknowledged, however, that there are some uncertainties in the
recovering of international economy and some difficulties and
problems in China's economic development, including insufficient
demand and employment pressure.
More investment in less-developed western areas
China will increase its input in the less-developed western areas
and adopt more measures to promote the development of these areas,
said the Vice Minister of the State Development Planning
Commission.
Wang said that over the past three years since the strategy of
developing the west was launched, the targeted areas have had great
changes in their infrastructure construction, biological
environment and other aspects.
Last year economy grew 9.9 percent in the western regions, faster
than the national average of 8 percent, the official said.
Four steps to narrow rural-urban gap
China will reinforce its efforts in four aspects to narrow the gap
between rural and urban areas.
Wang Chunzheng told the press conference that the disparity of
development between rural and urban areas is a critical issue that
China has to face in its economic and social development, adding
that solving the issue will have to go through a fairly arduous
procedure.
This year the government will make efforts in four aspects to
narrow the gap:
--
Restructuring agricultural products in accordance with market
demand;
--
Carrying out taxing and fee charging reforms in the whole country
to alleviate farmers' financial burden;
--
Investing more in rural infrastructure construction to improve
farmers' production and living conditions; and
Continuing to push forward the drive of urbanization to create
conditions for surplus rural labor force to find jobs in towns and
cities.
WTO membership helps China's foreign trade increase
China's WTO membership created a good international environment for
its export and import in 2002, which scored a growth of 21.8
percent, according to Wang.
Positive factors behind the fast foreign trade growth also include
the gradual recovering of international economy, the development of
diversified destination markets and product quality, and the
sharply increased export and import of private and foreign-funded
enterprises, the official added.
He
said that this year's projected growth of foreign trade is set at 7
percent, lower than last year, considering the fierce competition
in the international market and the increasingly serious trade
protectionism.
China to learn from Western countries in "go-west"
campaign
China will draw on experience of foreign countries in formulating
policies for large-scale development of its western regions, said
Li Zibin, deputy director of the Office of the Leading Group under
the State Council for the Development of the Western Regions.
"We will take the practices of the United States, Canada, Japan and
Italy as a reference when drafting the overall western development
program, said Li.
"We'll draw on their successful experience to formulate policies
geared to the actual conditions of the circumstances in China's
western regions and the overall situation of China," said Li.
China has stated it would balance ecological environment with
economic growth in the western development drive.
More than 500 billion yuan (US$60.24 billion) will be invested in
four areas to improve the ecological environment in the western
regions, including protection of natural forests, returning
farmland to forests, desertification control and closing pastures
for the renewal of grassland.
Energy production is high on the agenda of the western development.
Construction of two landmark projects, the west-to-east electricity
transmission project and the west-to-east natural gas pipeline,
have already begun.
It
is also learnt at the press conference that in the development of
the western regions, domestic private investors are given the same
access as foreign investors.
(People's Daily March 8, 2003)
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