BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will meet here Wednesday with US President Barack Obama, who is on his first state visit to China since his January inauguration. They will have a working lunch before Obama's sightseeing visit to the Great Wall in the north suburb of the Chinese capital, which will be another chance for the US head of state, who toured the Imperial Palace Tuesday, to learn more about the ancient Chinese civilization. Obama will conclude his fist visit to China and fly to the Republic of Korea, the last leg of his four-state Asian tour, in the afternoon. He arrived in China's economic hub Shanghai Sunday night to kick off this visit as guest of his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. Hu held talks with him in Beijing on Tuesday and they met international reporters for about 40 minutes after the talks, both pledging to further bilateral ties. Top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo also met Obama on Tuesday, several hours before a state banquet in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing. In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, the two sides spoke highly of the tremendous development achieved since the two countries established diplomatic relations 30 years ago and reached consensus on further bilateral ties.
ROME, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's experience in eradicating hunger can be learned by other developing countries, the president of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the World Summit on Food Security, Kanayo Nwanze said China has done a lot both in increasing national funds for agriculture and in supporting other developing countries through strategic rural investments. "I have seen firsthand progress," he said. "China was able in 30 years, from 1978 to 2007, to reduce rural poverty from 30 percent to 1.6 percent through massive investments in rural development and rural areas, focusing on women, right policies andl and access." For Nwanze China can be a role-model for other developing countries. "Through her own experience China is able to collaborate with others in bringing its knowledge and technology to other parts of the world," he said. However, "it is then the recipient country's responsibility to ensure that these experiences are properly used," he added. "China's partnership with developing countries, in particular Africa, is able to assist these countries but it is imperative that the developing countries have themselves the right policies to ensure that the investments reach the rural population," Nwanze said.
BEIJING, Nov. 24 -- Taxi passengers in Beijing will have an extra yuan added to their fares. The move is meant to offset the city's rising fuel prices, as they hit their highest levels in years. The new taxi fare policy will begin this Wednesday on November 25, 2009. One yuan will be added to any trip exceeding 3 kilometers. Beijing will continue to work on linking taxi fares with gasoline prices. Meanwhile, most of local residents say they accept the surcharge. A local resident of Beijing said, "A one yuan surcharge won't affect me too much. I'm OK with it." The new Beijing taxi fare policy will begin on Nov. 25, 2009. One yuan will be added to any trip exceeding 3 kilometers Another said, "Some Chinese provinces have already taken similar measures, such as Yunnan and Shandong. I think it's fine. We should do it." Taxi drivers have explained that the extra yuan will provide compensation for the increase in pump prices. A taxi driver in Beijing said, "If I serve 40 passengers a day, it will create an additional 40 yuan. That can help me cope with the recent fuel price rises. I don't think passengers will give up taking taxi just because of one yuan. But if the per kilometer fare rises, many will think differently." According to the new policy, the government, taxi companies, and passengers will share the cost of gasoline price fluctuations. Beijing last saw an increase in taxi fares three years ago.
BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese political advisor Jia Qinglin has called for adequate preparation for next year's annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). A meeting of the CPPCC National Committee's chairperson and vice chairpersons decided Saturday to open the annual full session of the top political advisory body on March 3 next year. Jia, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, said the session, together with the annual full meeting of the National People's Congress, is of great significance in deepening reform, tackling the global financial crisis, advancing social and economic development, and ensuring stability next year. Zhao Qizheng, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, was appointed the spokesman for the annual session in March. Jia Qinglin (C), member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), presides over the 21st Chairpersons' Meeting of the 11th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing, capital of China, on Dec. 25, 2009
TAIPEI, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou on Sunday called for both sides across the Taiwan Strait to resolve hatred through communication and negotiation and make peace an eternity. Ma made the remarks in a ceremony to unveil a memorial square, which was constructed on the site of the Kuningtou battle in Kinmen of Taiwan, according to local media reports. Troops of the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang had fierce fightings and suffered heavy losses at the site on Oct. 25,1949, the year when the People's Republic of China was founded. Battlefield should be turned into a square of peace, opposition should be replaced by reconciliation, and war by peace, Ma said. Ma called for efforts to find a way that is acceptable for both sides to settle cross-Strait issues.
SHANGHAI, Nov. 1 (Xinhua)-- HSBC has raised its forecast of China's GDP growth this year to 8.1 percent, said HSBC Group Chairman Stephen Green here Sunday. The bank's previous forecast was 7.8 percent. While attending the annual International Business Leaders' Advisory Council (IBLAC), Green said the world financial crisis has not derailed either of the two most noteworthy and transformative trends in global finance: "the rise of China and the shift from west to east." He also expected effects of China's stimulus packages would further lift the country's GDP growth and sustain the recovery momentum into 2010. Green said Shanghai, as China's largest city, had kept a relatively stable growth during the crisis, which suggested it had the potential to become one of the world's financial centers comparable to New York or London.
铜陵白癜风研究院地址
BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- China will never swerve from its carbon emission cut target despite all pressure and difficulties, said a senior official Thursday evening. Xie Zhenhua, vice minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, made the remarks at a press conference. China's State Council, the Cabinet, announced Thursday that the country is going to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent compared with the level of 2005. This is a "voluntary action" taken by the Chinese government "based on our own national conditions" and "is a major contribution to the global effort in tackling climate change," the State Council said. Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei also attended the press conference. "China made the emission cut target without financial and technological support from developed countries. This is not only for the country's own sustainable development, but also for the benefit of all the mankind," said He. However, China is still hoping developed countries would take actions as soon as possible, He said, adding that the Bali Road Map has set binding targets and actions on emission cut, investment and technology for developed countries. China faces huge pressure and special difficulties in controlling greenhouse gas emission, as the country has a large population and relatively low economic development level and is at a critical period to accelerate industrialization and urbanization, Xie said. "It demands great courage for the government to announce such a target," said Yu Jie, an official in charge of Climate Group's policy and research. The Climate Group is a British-based non-governmental environmental organization. As a developing country, China still faces various problems in both economic and social development, and it is not easy to make such a commitment, Yu said. The announcement of China's carbon emission target has broken one of the deadlocks challenging the upcoming Copenhagen summit, she said. It is also an answer to President Hu Jintao's promise at the September United Nations climate summit in New York that China would cut emission intensity by "a notable margin" by 2020 from the 2005 level. China's target is made after scientific research and calculations, combining the efforts to both tackle climate change and promote social and economic development, said Yao Yufang, professor at the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). "Any party that asks China for higher cut is acting unreasonably." China can and will achieve the target if the country endeavors to improve energy efficiency, promote the development of renewable energy and optimize industrial structure, Yao said. "The country has set a specific quantitative target far beyond the Bali Road Map demands for developing countries, which reflects China's sincerity to make the Copenhagen summit successful and its commitment to tackle the climate change," said Pan Jiahua, director of the CASS Research Center for Urban Development and Environment. Li Gao, an NDRC official and a key climate change negotiator representing the Chinese government, said Tuesday: "We will try to make the summit successful and we will not accept that it ends with an empty and so-called political declaration."
GENEVA, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- China will maintain the stability of its Renminbi (RMB) exchange rate all along, which does good for the world economic recovery, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on Monday. China's exchange rate reform has continued smoothly, and the value of RMB has risen by some 20 percent against the U.S. dollar since 2005, Chen told reporters in Geneva, where he is attending a ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization. Despite the impact of the global financial crisis and all kinds of other difficulties, the Chinese government has actively tried to boost domestic consumption and stimulate imports, Chen said. Visiting Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming attends a launching ceremony of China-Swiss joint study to examine the feasibility of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 30, 2009 Maintaining a relatively stable RMB exchange rate serves the need of China's economic development as well as the world's economic stability, he added. According to the minister, China's foreign trade surplus is expected to drop by more than a third to 190 billion dollars this year from last year's 290 billion dollars. Chen also urged the world's major reserve currencies to remain stable. He said the continuous depreciation of these currencies had caused much difficulty for the world economy, and that the attempts to transfer the difficulty to other countries are unjustifiable.
BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged unswerving efforts to improve the building of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to secure the Party's role as the steel core of the country's leadership. Hu, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made the call at a group study of the members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Friday. With more than 75 million members and 3.7 million grassroots organizations, the CPC shoulders a tough task of Party building and management to lead the country's 1.3 billion people in economic and social development, Hu said. To promote a democratic and scientific decision-making mechanism for the Party and government is a crucial task for the Party, he said. In an era of great development and major transformation, Hu stressed, the CPC is facing long-term, complex and severe tests of challenges it would encounter as a ruling party in the process of reform, opening up, and implementation of market economy. To improve Party building is also an urgent requirement of coping with the international financial crisis and maintaining the country's economic growth, Hu said. He urged CPC organizations at all levels to promote organizational construction, improve regulations and fight against corruption. The Party should also establish and improve an institutional system based on the Party's Constitution and the principles of democratic centralism...and ensure the Party's unity and strengthen the Party's vigor of innovation, Hu said.
BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- A new pricing mechanism of fuel surcharge that links it with airlines' jet fuel costs has been introduced to offset rising jet fuel costs, China's top economic planner announced here Thursday. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), together with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said in a statement on its website that the fuel surcharge keep abreast with China's jet fuel comprehensive purchasing costs. The new mechanism, which would take effect on Nov. 14, aims to "help the airlines with fluctuating fuel prices", as jet fuel costs usually account for 40 percent of the total costs of China's airline companies, said the statement. Under the new mechanism, airline companies could decide themselves whether to charge fuel surcharge and how much to charge if jet fuel comprehensive purchasing cost, which is the weighted average of domestic factory-gate prices for jet fuel and prices of imported fuel, reaches certain level. Currently, the surcharge level was set uniformly by the government. According to the new mechanism, when jet fuel comprehensive purchasing cost is lower than 4140 yuan per tonne, the benchmark price of jet fuel, airline companies should not charge fuel surcharge. When jet fuel comprehensive purchasing cost exceeds the level, the companies should digest at least 20 percent of the rising cost and then charge appropriate surcharge, the statement said. Also, fuel surcharge should be reduced or canceled within five days after jet fuel comprehensive purchasing cost drops, it said. China raised gasoline and diesel prices both by 480 yuan (70.28U.S. dollars) per tonne Tuesday. The benchmark price of gasoline reached 7,100 yuan a tonne and that of diesel 6,360 yuan a tonne, according to the NDRC.