DOHA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- China on Saturday called for efforts to create global development partnerships and urged the international community to take practical steps to help developing nations in confronting the ongoing global financial crisis. Vice Chinese Foreign Minister He Yafei, as the special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, made the remarks at the plenary session of the U.N.-sponsored Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development. The spreading international financial crisis, coupled with the complicated and grave international economic situation, is posing a challenge to efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals, He said. The international community should approach the issue of financing for development from an overall and long-term perspective, establish partnerships for global development and take practical steps to help the developing countries. On the issue of financing for development, a balance needs to be struck in the following points, He said. Special attention should be given to efforts to minimize the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, so as to maintain a good balance between stabilizing the financial market and helping vulnerable countries and communities. Moreover, relevant parties should do more to promote global economic growth and stability, and stand firm against protectionism in efforts to conclude the Doha round of negotiations at an early date, he said. He also urged the developed nations to fulfill their commitments on aid, and offer debt forgiveness and technology transfers to the developing nations. While seeking solutions to the longstanding problem of development deficits, countries around the world should also mobilize new and extra funds to effectively cope with such emerging challenges as energy security, food security and climate change, He said. On crisis response and prevention, He called on countries worldwide to continue their efforts in stabilizing the financial market as well as in building a just, equitable, inclusive and orderly international financial system. Efforts should be made to carry out necessary reforms of the existing international financial system and its governance structures in a timely, gradual, comprehensive and balanced manner, He added. The United Nations, the most authoritative international organization in the world, should continue to play its leading role in financing so as to encourage the international community to make bigger investments in development, he noted.
BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) issued a Chair's Statement here on Saturday, agreeing to issue the Beijing Declaration on Sustainable Development. The statement said the leaders held extensive and in-depth discussions on issues of realizing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the sustainable development targets agreed in Johannesburg, strengthening energy security cooperation, jointly addressing the challenge of climate change, and environmental protection, including water resources, forests and air, and improving social cohesion under the framework of sustainable development. Leaders stressed the importance of mid-term review of the MDGs, and underscored the need for ASEM members to further deepen international development cooperation to meet the IADGs, particularly the MDGs, in a timely manner. Leaders expressed their support for strengthened international cooperation on climate change that could help assess impacts and vulnerabilities, build adaptive capacities, and support adaptation actions. Leaders also emphasized the need for the sustainable management of forest and ocean as well as other territorial, coastal and marine ecosystems. Leaders stressed the need to focus on development needs and environmental sustainability in the energy sector. They emphasized the need for Asia-Europe cooperation to ensure the availability of environmentally sound energy at a reasonable price to support economic growth and that the latest technology should be intended to increase energy efficiency. Leaders recognized that the impact of globalization is increasingly being felt by the people of ASEM members, and share a common interest in strengthening the social dimension of globalization and improving social cohesion. To this end, leaders unanimously agreed to issue the Beijing Declaration on Sustainable Development. The Seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM 7) was held in Beijing on 24 and 25 October 2008. The Meeting was the first gathering of the leaders of 45 members of ASEM since its second round of enlargement.
BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday extended sympathy over a Japanese consumer's sickness caused by eating China-made frozen green beans. "We hope she will recover soon," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular press conference when asked to comment on this case. The Chinese government valued product quality and food safety, and attached great importance to this case, he noted. According to Japanese media, a woman fell ill after eating the beans produced by a company in Yantai, a coastal city of east China's Shandong Province. The woman experienced numbness in her mouth after eating the beans on Sunday. Japanese health authorities reportedly said they had detected 6,900 parts per million of organophosphate pesticide dichlorvos in the beans, or 34,500 times the maximum level the government allows for imports. No dichlorvos were found in other packaged beans. Informed of this case, China immediately contacted with the Japanese embassy to China to size up situation, China's quality inspection authorities immediately went to Yantai to conduct investigation in the company, and local governments also set up a special group to assist the investigation, according to Qin. Now the investigation is well under way, he noted. According to the current result of the tests, the company's production facilities were normal, all production records were in order, and no hidden trouble was found in quality or safety, Qin said. The management of the company conformed to the standards, he noted. Moreover, this batch of products exported to Japan had passed tests before exportation and no pesticide residue, such as the dichlorvos or methamidophos, was detected. Qin said the Chinese quality inspection department Wednesday once again tested the retention samples of the exported beans and found no pesticide residues. He said the Chinese side has reported the initial investigation results to the Japanese side and made arrangement for the officials with the Japanese embassy to visit Yantai on Thursday tofind out relevant situation. Qin also disclosed some information provided by the Japanese side which said relevant Japanese organization only found residue of dichlorvos in one bag of beans but found no such pesticide residues in other products of the same batch. He said he has noted that the Japanese police and media recently both believed there is little possibility that the beans were polluted during the producing process, and that the case might not be a food safety incident but a man-made poisoning case. The Japanese police has placed the case on file for investigation, he added. He stressed that the Chinese government is ready to keep close contacts and cooperation with the Japanese side to find out the truth as soon as possible.
CHENGDU, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's central government has pledged to help its Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) to cope with the impact of the ongoing international financial crisis. It was revealed by Vice Premier Li Keqiang when meeting the SAR's Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah in Chengdu, capital of southwest Sichuan Province on Sunday. Ho arrived here on Sunday, leading a delegation of the SAR to attend the Ninth Western China International Economy and Trade Fair. The Vice Premier said the central government would give all-out support to the SAR's Chief Executive and government in administration in line with laws. It would actively assist the SAR's government to maintain stability and prosperity of the region. Li also praised the SAR's government for promoting Macao's exchange and cooperation with the country's inland regions and hoped that Macao could make more contribution to economic construction and development in China's western region.
BEIJING, Oct. 17 -- The government is ready to introduce a series of measures to cushion the impact of slower growth in foreign trade and industrial output caused by the global credit crisis, the vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said Thursday. Speaking at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing, Du Ying said that as the global economy has slowed, foreign trade volume, value-added output and the profit growth of industrial firms based in China's coastal areas have shown a downward trend in the second half of the year. "The State Council is greatly concerned by the trend and is ready to introduce a series of measures," he said. But the full impact of the global financial crisis has yet to be seen, he said. "We must have a full picture of the difficulties and challenges," he said. The government has already taken several measures to combat the impact, including lowering the deposit reserve ratio, helping small- and medium-sized factories to upgrade their technologies, and introducing more favorable credit policies, Du said. He said he is confident China can weather the storm. "As in the past, China can overcome the challenges and difficulties and enter a new stage of development. I'm fully confident of that," Du said. With the global financial crisis continuing to escalate, China - the world's fourth largest economy - has seen its major economic indexes slide. The National Bureau of Statistics is due to release figures on Monday for the economic situation over the past three quarters. Some analysts have forecast that GDP growth might drop further in the third quarter, from 10.1 percent in the second quarter and 11.9 percent for the whole of last year. Yang Xiong, vice-mayor of Shanghai, said the city's industrial output growth fell to 6 percent last month from an average of 11.5 percent per month in the first three quarters. The financial hub remains in good shape, however, partly due to investments in preparation for the 2010 World Expo, he said. Zhao Kezhi, deputy governor of Jiangsu, said the province's trade figures were down 4 percent year-on-year in the first nine months. Chen Min'er, vice-governor of Zhejiang, said the province had witnessed "individual" cases of company failures, but denied media reports of widespread factory closures. Authorities will respond by trying to cut the tax burden on local firms, make more credit available and ensure a sufficient supply of land and power for manufacturers, Chen said, adding that now was a good time to weed out obsolete, polluting plants. On Wednesday, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the central bank, called for increased domestic consumption to counter the economic slowdown. "Due to the impact of various factors, we may need to increase domestic demand," he told Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV.
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BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese emergency chartered flights are expected to fly back home almost all the more than 3,000 mainland tourists stuck in riot-hit Thailand by Dec. 1. Four Chinese mainland carriers have sent nine planes to retrieve the tourists after Bangkok's international airport closed because of a protest. Some 2,000 tourists had returned back home by noon, and another more than 800 would fly back late Sunday night or early Monday morning, according to the airlines. A China Eastern Airbus-300 arrives at the Utapao Airport near Pattaya, about 150 km east of Bangkok, capital of Thailand, Nov. 29, 2008. Chinese aviation authorities were sending 5 planes on Saturday to Thailand to bring home the remaining stranded Chinese tourists after the closure of the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok China Southern Airlines, the nation's largest carrier by fleet size, said late Sunday night it will sent another plane to take back the remaining tourists on Monday. Around 246 passengers landed in Shanghai at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday. This was the first return flight from Thailand, though delayed for several hours because of unstable situation at the airport.
BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Accelerating reconstruction work is the top priority in quake-affected areas, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his visit over the weekend to Sichuan Province. He told villagers in Anxian County on Sunday that the government would strengthen support to farmers to help them rebuild their houses within two years, instead of three years as was the original schedule. The construction of public facilities, including schools, kindergartens and hospitals should also be quickened, Wen added. "We can achieve that," he said. When visited students and teachers of the Beichuan Middle School on Saturday. The school has been operating in a temporary shelter. He told students who were injured in the quake, never to give up. "I hope you will be optimistic against all the difficulties," When said. He also listened to a report on the plan to rebuild Beichuan County as it was destroyed by the quake. "The reconstruction work for the new county should be based on advice from experts and the public," When said. He also visited the Sichuan Jiuzhou Electric Group, which has resumed production after the quake, and the Pangang Group Sichuan Chengcheng Special Steel Cooperation. When said reconstruction work should not only rely on government investment. "Private companies should be motivated to invest in post-quake reconstruction projects," he said. It's Wen's sixth visit to the area after the 8.0-magnitude quake stuck on May 12 killing nearly 70,000 people. More than 17,000 are still missing.
GUANGZHOU, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- What China can do for the world is not to sell out its massive dollar reserve, but slightly increase its hold of the currency to give reasonable support to the U.S. effort to save its economy, said a senior economist here on Saturday. It is indeed difficult for China to handle its huge forex reserve, as the U.S. currency has already depreciated 20 percent against the Chinese yuan, said Cheng Siwei, well-known economist at a financial forum held in Guangdong. "China would suffer from losses if it sells off the dollar, so our strategy should be not to sell, but to slightly increase dollar reserve," said Cheng, also former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC). Cheng made the remarks amid increasing concern that China might use its forex reserve to finance its 4-trillion-yuan stimulus plan. China held 1.9 trillion dollars worth of forex reserve by September this year. China "can only afford to do what is corresponding to its level of development and national power amid a global crisis," said Cheng. "We should be prudent as to how to deal with our forex reserve," said Cheng, noting that China, despite its large size of economy, has its gross domestic product (GDP) accounting for only 6 percent of the world's total, and its per capita GDP ranking falling out of the top one hundred list.
BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin on Tuesday called for more efforts to consolidate and develop an equal, unified, cooperative and harmonious relationship among all ethnic groups. All ethnic groups were inseparable, he said at a meeting with a 49-strong delegation of minority role models and local leaders in Beijing. Authorities in minority areas should work to rebuild shared growth and prosperity, and implement policies on minority regional development. The delegation from southwest China is scheduled to visit Shanghai, and southern China after leaving Beijing. Jia Qinglin (R), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC), meets with members of a delegation of China's ethnic minorities in Beijing, China, Nov. 11, 2008