BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen earlier this month expressed his appreciation for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's important and constructive role in the Copenhagen conference, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.Rasmussen made the remarks in a letter to Wen on Feb. 12, said spokesman Qin Gang at a regular press conference.Premier Wen on Jan. 29 wrote a letter in reply to Rasmussen concerning the Copenhagen Accord, reiterating China's support for the Accord and the country's climate change commitments.Wen said in the letter that the Copenhagen Accord which resulted from the UN climate change conference in the Danish capital last year laid the foundation for advancing international cooperation on climate change and enabled future negotiations to take place.Rasmussen replied on Feb. 12 that he fully agreed with Wen on his evaluation, saying that he was inspired by China's support for the Accord, Qin said.The Chinese government had reported its emission cuts progress to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reaffirming a reduction of carbon dioxide emission intensity per unit of GDP by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 against 2005 levels.Rasmussen welcomed the China's emission cuts progress. He also agreed with Wen on adhering to the main role of the UNFCCC in future negotiations, Qin said.China hoped Denmark, as chair of the Conference of UNFCCC Parties, would continue to play a positive role, Qin said, noting that the country would maintain contacts with Denmark.In Tuesday's press conference, Qin also responded to a question related to UN climate chief's announcement of resignation.Yvo de Boer has announced last week that he will resign his position as Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC as of July 1 this year.Qin said de Boer had contributed positively in organizing and serving the international negotiations on climate change since assuming his current post in 2006.China had cooperated well with the UNFCCC secretariat, and supported de Boer's efforts, Qin said. He said he hoped that de Boer would continue his contribution to tackling climate change in his new job.De Boer would be joining the consultancy group KPMG as Global Adviser on Climate and Sustainability, as well as working with a number of universities, according to a statement by the United Nations.
BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Senior leader Li Changchun has called on Chinese artists and writers to help promote the prosperity of socialist culture and contribute to the Chinese nation's rejuvenation."The promotion of prosperity of a socialist culture is facing a very good opportunity," said Li, who is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Sunday at a seminar with the country's well-known writers and artists.The Chinese artists and writers should remain closely connected with the public so that their works reflect people's concerns and wishes, he said.He also encouraged them to be innovative and to explore new areas of arts to meet the demand of the public and the market.He hoped the artists and writers could introduce more works to foreign countries to enhance the international influence and competitiveness of the Chinese culture.Li visited a new center built for the Chinese writers and artists Sunday and extended festival greetings to the representatives.The Chinese are to celebrate their Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year, in mid February this year.
HONG KONG, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong signed an agreement with Brunei for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to income taxes, the HK Special Administrative Region government said on Saturday.According to an official news release, Financial Secretary John Tsang signed the deal with Brunei Second Minister of Finance Abdul Rahman Ibrahim on Saturday during his visit to the southeast Asian country.This was the sixth comprehensive agreement for the avoidance of double taxation concluded by Hong Kong.It will eliminate double taxation instances encountered by Hong Kong and Bruneian investors, and bring about tax savings and certainty in tax liabilities in connection with cross-border economic activities.It is also believed to help foster closer economic and trade links between the two places, and provide added incentives for Brunei's enterprises to do business or invest in Hong Kong.Profits of Hong Kong trading companies doing business through a permanent establishment in Brunei may be taxed in both places if the income is Hong Kong sourced. Under the agreement, double taxation is avoided in that any Brunei tax paid by the companies can be deducted from the tax payable in Hong Kong.
BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned Friday the nation still faces "a very complex situation" in the wake of the "most difficult year for economic development" since the new millennium.Delivering his work report to the National People's Congress (NPC), the parliament, Wen set the economic growth target for 2010 at "about 8 percent."China's economy expanded 8.7 percent in 2009, staging a faster-than-expected recovery after being hit by the worst global financial crisis in decades thanks to a raft of stimulus measures.ECONOMYPutting the economy "on a sound footing," the government needs to guide all sectors to focus on transforming economic growth pattern and restructuring economy, Wen said in the report.He acknowledged that 2010 is a "crucial year" for continuing to combat the global financial crisis, maintaining "steady and rapid" economic development, and accelerating the transformation of growth pattern.It is also an important year for achieving all the targets of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) and laying a solid foundation for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), he said."Although this year's development environment may be better than last year's, we still face a very complex situation," Wen told nearly 3,000 NPC deputies at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.Other key economic and social targets included creating more than 9 million jobs in cities, keeping urban registered unemployment rate under 4.6 percent and keeping the rise in consumer prices at about 3 percent.Wen said while the foundation for economic turnaround becomes stronger, he cautioned it should not be interpreted as "fundamental improvement."Listing key government tasks, Wen said it will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and continue to implement the stimulus package which was unveiled in late 2008 that included a 4-trillion yuan (585.5 billion U.S. dollars) two-year investment.Lawmaker Li Dongsheng from Guangdong Province, chairman of China's largest color TV producer TCL Corporation, said the proactive fiscal policy is in line with the company's current business development and it demands more "implementing techniques."Li said more flexibility is needed in carrying out the economic policy as China still faces "extremely complicated economic picture," including unclear export prospect.
BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Overseas media have widely reported China's measures to maintain social and economic development, after the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opened Wednesday.The session outlined plans to keep the steady and fast development of economy, narrow the gap between city and country, and adjust income distribution pattern.The AP said that CPPCC National Committee Chairman Jia Qinglin said in a work report "2010 is a crucial year for China to respond to the impact of the global financial crisis and maintain steady and rapid economic development."The annual session of China's legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), which opens Friday, was expected to "give a full airing to hot-button issues such as soaring real estate prices in many Chinese cities," it said.The Chinese government, which released a budget and work plan for the year, was expected to boost spending on education, pensions and medical care, continuing a push begun in the past decade to strengthen a tattered social safety net, it said.The annual plenary sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC National Committee are known as China's "two sessions."The AFP said China opened its annual parliamentary season Wednesday with a call from the Chinese leadership to keep up economic growth, maintain social stability and tackle a yawning urban-rural income gap.The two gatherings were the Chinese leadership's chance to showcase its efforts to tackle the key challenges facing the country, and economic concerns looked set to top that list, it said.Online, The Wall Street Journal Asia Edition said in an article the NPC's annual session would kick off Friday and this year's theme "naturally" was the economy.In a talk with China's netizens last week, Premier Wen Jiabao said "while it is the government's responsibility to expand the 'pie' of national wealth, it is the government's conscience to distribute it in an adequate manner," the article said.The Yonhap news agency said the Chinese government was speeding up its economic transformation after the global financial crisis because it realised it could not overcome future crises with its current economic structure dominated by cheap exports. China should keep a balanced development of service sectors and agriculture, and nurture the domestic market, it said. Economic transformation would be one of the hot topics of this year's NPC, it said.Yonhap said, although the Chinese economy was gradually recovering, China faced some serious problems, such as the widening urban-rural gap.China recently focused on migrant workers, eyeing the new generation of migrant workers born in the 1990s, and would discuss the making of the medium- and long-term layout for migrant workers.The Wall Street Journal said, while the 2009 NPC was obsessed with attaining an 8 percent growth rate, the priority for this year's session was to ensure a more equitable distribution of national income.A commentary on the website of Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao said that, from the perspective of China's economic development, it was in accordance with the needs of expanding China's consumption and transforming its economic growth mode for the country to gradually annul the dualistic structure between city and countryside, promote urbanization, scrap social welfare policies that discriminated against farmers, and ensure farmers' equal rights with urban dwellers.One of the major reasons for the long-term inequality between city and countryside was China didn't have a big enough "pie" to ensure the fair distribution of interests, it said.Canada's leading public policy magazine Policy Options said in a commentary that the Chinese leadership was paying more and more attention to the demands of the poor in remote regions.From the list of the central government's financial expenditures, it could be found that the government would heavily invest on infrastructure development and maintenance, medical reforms, poverty reduction and education, it said.
即墨无痛流产的危害
BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday urged to boost development of social undertakings and improvement of people's livelihoods while pushing forward the transformation of economic growth mode.Speaking to a seminar for provincial and ministerial level officials presided over by Vice Premier Li Keqiang and attended by Vice President Xi Jinping, Wen said development of science, education and culture was key to the transformation of China's economic growth mode and its sustainable development.He urged that plans should be made to forge a number of emerging strategic industries as the mainstay of China's economy as soon as possible, and that traditional industries should be upgraded with the latest technologies to enhance their efficiency and competitiveness. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (C) speaks as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping(R) and Vice Premier Li Keqiang (L) listen in a seminar on the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development and the transformation of the mode of economic development in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 4, 2010. The seminar, attended by the country's provincial and ministerial chiefs, opened on Wednesday at the Party School of the Communist Party of China(CPC) Central Committee in BeijingHe also called for stepped-up efforts in technological self-innovation, the creation and protection of intellectual properties.Reforms in China's education system must also be carried forward so as to promote quality education and to give the schools more say in their operation, the Premier said.Authorities must ensure free access to the nine-year compulsory education for all children, and to bridge the gap of imbalanced educational resources between urban and rural areas and between different regions and schools, Wen said.Vocational education should also be improved, he added.Noting that culture was an important factor in boosting the country's development and the revitalization of the nation, Wen said policies to support the development of cultural industries and innovations should be perfected.In addition, he stressed that boosting employment should be given top priority in China's social and economic development.Authorities should increase employment by maintaining stable and relatively fast economic growth, fueling the development of the service industry, labor and knowledge-intensive industries, and supporting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and the non-public sectors, he said.They should also provide more training for people having difficulties in finding jobs, Wen said.The Premier also said the country's income distribution system should be perfected so that all 1.3 billion Chinese could enjoy the fruit of the country's reform and opening up drive.Authorities should make special efforts to raise the payment for people with modest or low incomes in both urban and rural areas in the country, especially farmers and migrant workers, he said, adding that tax tools should be better employed to adjust the income distribution.He also urged that the country's social security system should be perfected.A nationwide social security network should be set up, and medical reforms should be deepened in the country to provide the public with easy and equal access to medical services.The public should be fully motivated to contribute to the development of social undertakings, in order to improve the quality and efficiency of public services, Wen said.
BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- China's government is set to order some central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to quit real estate business as their land acquisitions are blamed for fuelling rise of urban housing prices, spokesman of the state assets watchdog Du Yuanquan said Thursday.The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) would require 78 centrally-administered SOEs, whose major business was not property development, to withdraw from the business, Du said in a SASAC press conference Thursday in Beijing.The SASAC gave no specific timetable for the withdrawal, but Du said it would require the 78 enterprises to step up business restructuring and gradually pull out of property development after all current real estate projects were finished.Housing prices in China's 70 large and medium-sized cities grew 10.7 percent in February from a year earlier, and were up 0.9 percent compared to the previous month, according to official figures.However, a total of 16 central SOEs, who have property development as major business, such as the China National Real Estate Development Group Corp. and the China Poly Group Corp., would continue in real estate, said Du.
BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday urged to boost development of social undertakings and improvement of people's livelihoods while pushing forward the transformation of economic growth mode.Speaking to a seminar for provincial and ministerial level officials presided over by Vice Premier Li Keqiang and attended by Vice President Xi Jinping, Wen said development of science, education and culture was key to the transformation of China's economic growth mode and its sustainable development.He urged that plans should be made to forge a number of emerging strategic industries as the mainstay of China's economy as soon as possible, and that traditional industries should be upgraded with the latest technologies to enhance their efficiency and competitiveness. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (C) speaks as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping(R) and Vice Premier Li Keqiang (L) listen in a seminar on the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development and the transformation of the mode of economic development in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 4, 2010. The seminar, attended by the country's provincial and ministerial chiefs, opened on Wednesday at the Party School of the Communist Party of China(CPC) Central Committee in BeijingHe also called for stepped-up efforts in technological self-innovation, the creation and protection of intellectual properties.Reforms in China's education system must also be carried forward so as to promote quality education and to give the schools more say in their operation, the Premier said.Authorities must ensure free access to the nine-year compulsory education for all children, and to bridge the gap of imbalanced educational resources between urban and rural areas and between different regions and schools, Wen said.Vocational education should also be improved, he added.Noting that culture was an important factor in boosting the country's development and the revitalization of the nation, Wen said policies to support the development of cultural industries and innovations should be perfected.In addition, he stressed that boosting employment should be given top priority in China's social and economic development.Authorities should increase employment by maintaining stable and relatively fast economic growth, fueling the development of the service industry, labor and knowledge-intensive industries, and supporting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and the non-public sectors, he said.They should also provide more training for people having difficulties in finding jobs, Wen said.The Premier also said the country's income distribution system should be perfected so that all 1.3 billion Chinese could enjoy the fruit of the country's reform and opening up drive.Authorities should make special efforts to raise the payment for people with modest or low incomes in both urban and rural areas in the country, especially farmers and migrant workers, he said, adding that tax tools should be better employed to adjust the income distribution.He also urged that the country's social security system should be perfected.A nationwide social security network should be set up, and medical reforms should be deepened in the country to provide the public with easy and equal access to medical services.The public should be fully motivated to contribute to the development of social undertakings, in order to improve the quality and efficiency of public services, Wen said.
BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is scheduled to issue 26 billion yuan (3.82 billion U.S. dollars) of book-entry treasury bonds from Jan. 28, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Wednesday.The two-year bonds, the first batch of treasury bonds this year, will be issued on the national inter-bank bond market and securities exchange market on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, the MOF said in a statement on its website.The bonds have a fixed annual interest rate of 2.01 percent and will be available for trading from Feb. 2. Interest will be paid annually. The principal will be paid upon maturity on Jan. 28, 2012.