Report on the Work of the Government

(Delivered at the Third Session of the Twelfth Beijing

Municipal People's Congress on January 23, 2005)

Wang Qishan

Mayor of Beijing

Fellow Deputies,

On behalf of the Beijing Municipal People's Government, I now submit a report on its work to this session for your examination and approval and also for comments and suggestions from members of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

I. Review of the Work in 2004

Under the leadership of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the people of the capital last year steadfastly took Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as their guide, conscientiously put into practice the guidelines of the Sixteenth National Congress of the CPC and the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of its Sixteenth Central Committee as well as the series of important directives central authorities issued concerning work in the city of Beijing, adopted and put into practice a scientific outlook on development and further implemented the strategic concept of "New Beijing, Great Olympics." Further progress was registered in reform and opening up and the modernization drive in Beijing, and the goals set at the Second Session of the Twelfth Beijing Municipal People's Congress were basically met.

- Economic growth in the capital was steady and rapid. Beijing's GDP reached 428.33 billion yuan, an increase of more than 13.2% over the previous year and the most rapid growth of the past ten years. Municipal government revenue totaled 74.45 billion yuan, a 29.7% increase. The consumer price index was 101%.

- There was steady improvement in people's living standards. The per capita disposable income of urban residents reached 15,638 yuan, an increase of 11.5% in real terms, and the per capita net income of rural residents was 7,172 yuan, an increase of 9.2% in real terms. The registered urban unemployment rate was 1.3%. The rate of natural population growth was 0.7‰.

- Environmental quality continued to improve. The control target for air quality was attained, reaching 62.5%. In the eight districts of the city proper, 58% of all sewage was treated, 93.8% of all household garbage was safely treated, and landscape coverage reached 41.8%. In the greater city area, forest coverage totaled 49.5%.

We changed the way we think about development in the past year in accordance with the scientific outlook on development. We revised work arrangements to put more emphasis on coordinating development, adjusting the economic structure, optimizing the industrial structure, improving the mode of economic growth, and strengthening city management. We effectively strengthened weak links in the economy and society. The main things we accomplished are as follows.

Paying close attention to the problems facing agriculture, rural areas and farmers and effectively protecting farmers' interests. We increased spending in outlying areas by a large margin. Government investment in infrastructure development and social undertakings in these areas totaled 2.62 billion yuan and 2.05 billion yuan, respectively, increases of 140% and 110%. Rural reforms were deepened by rescinding agricultural taxes and surcharges. The work of verifying the legitimacy of land-use rights in rural areas was basically completed. The method of compensating and resettling people displaced from expropriated land was revised, and satisfactory solutions were found for longstanding problems such as delays in compensating farmers for expropriated land and providing social security for people who have been displaced from the land and become self-employed workers. Direct subsidies to farmers were increased. The policy of directly granting subsidies for grain production was implemented. A compensation mechanism was set up for the establishment of protected mountain forests in which direct subsidies are granted to the concerned townships, towns or village-level organizations. Compensation was increased for land expropriated for green barriers around the city and for green corridor forests, and subsidies for landscape maintenance were increased. Direct subsidies were given to farmers whose flocks were killed to prevent the spread of avian flu. The work of moving people from the mountains was resumed. Asphalt roads were laid to connect 216 villages to major roads. More policies to resolve the problems facing agriculture, rural areas and farmers were adopted, more effort was put into solving them and the benefits received by farmers in 2004 were the largest in recent years.

Implementing the macro-regulatory policies and measures of the central authorities and balancing the rate, quality and performance of economic growth. We cut the number of all types of development zones from 470 to 28, a reduction of 94%, and reduced the area covered by development plans by 47,000 hectares. We reviewed projects under and awaiting construction in accordance with the law, standardized procedures for transferring land and solved a number of longstanding problems. Fixed asset investment and investment on credit were brought under effective control. We improved regulation of the economy, kept supply and demand for coal, electricity, oil and transportation basically in balance, and ensured the market of an adequate supply of important commodities such as grain. We accelerated development of new and high technology industries and modern manufacturing industries. Industrial investment increased by a big margin; the fundamental steps for diversifying the base for industrial growth were completed; and the industrial growth rate was the highest in recent years. The growth trend for modern service industries was sound, the cultural industry was up to scale, and the conference and exposition sector of the economy grew steadily. Actual foreign direct investment used totaled US$ 3.08 billion, an increase of 43%. The export volume of local enterprises amounted to US$ 10.61 billion, an increase of 44%. The number of foreign tourists reached an all-time high. There was continued improvement in the quality and efficiency of economic activity, with profits of large industrial enterprises in the city increasing by 32% and profits of large commercial enterprises by 110%.

Increasing investment and adjustment efforts and balancing the development of all social undertakings. The municipal government spent 13.28 billion yuan on social undertakings for the city as a whole, an increase of 27.8%. This money was used to strengthen the public health system, promote steady progress in efforts to establish a unified emergency health care system for urban and rural areas, accelerate efforts to upgrade township and town level hospitals and village clinics and improve the supply network for medicine in rural areas. Improvements were made in the distribution of primary and middle schools, and 480 million yuan was earmarked to supply rural primary and middle schools with computers and support operations in schools with financial difficulties. A special fund was set up to help children in economically disadvantaged families complete their compulsory education, and the problem of providing compulsory education for children whose parents have relocated to Beijing to work has basically been solved. Investment in science was restructured to increase support for technological innovation in enterprises and industrial application of scientific advances, and the transformation of a number of research institutes progressed steadily. There was flourishing development of cultural undertakings. Work on pilot projects for the transformation of the cultural system progressed smoothly. Beijing successfully hosted a number of activities for the Sino-French Culture Year. More was done to preserve ancient sites in the city and the 330 million-yuan project to preserve artifacts and ancient buildings was completed. There was vigorous growth in recreational sports activities, and our achievements in competitive sports were very satisfying. Athletes representing Beijing won five gold medals at the Athens Olympics. The strategy of reinvigorating China through the use of human resources was put into practice, and policies and measures for attracting outstanding people in the fields of culture and sports were formulated and implemented. Population control and family planning work progressed steadily.

Working out a master plan for managing development and promoting the sustainable development of the city. Innovations were introduced in the way plans are formulated following a policy of government organization, adherence to the law in all work, expert leadership, cooperation between government departments, participation of the general public and scientific decision making. The wisdom of various interests was pooled in completing the revision of the city's master plan, which laid out the blueprint for construction and development in Beijing up to the year 2020. A plan for the city's environmental protection work and an outline for traffic development were formulated. In addition to speeding up the pace of rail transit development and road building in the city, the use of existing roads was revised to tap their full potential and improve their management. Toll collection on the Fifth Ring Road was rescinded. A number of roads were extended and local traffic flow patterns were improved, resulting in a 15% increase in the carrying capacity of roads inside the Fourth Ring Road. The first phase of the first central disposal facility for hospital waste was put into operation, and the Lugouqiao Sewage Treatment Plant and the second phase of the Qinghe Sewage Treatment Plant were completed. The tenth stage of air pollution control measures was implemented, and the average sulfur dioxide concentration for the year reached the national Grade 2 air quality standard for the first time. A total of 1,000 hectares of urban land were planted with trees, and 112 key environmental improvement measures were implemented. Progress was made in all aspects of the drive to promote water conservation; 96% of all mechanical water pumps are now fitted with meters; and the amount of water used in homes and businesses has been reduced by 54 million cubic meters. We intensified conservation publicity work and issued an open letter to the city's residents, which helped increase public awareness of the need to conserve resources.

Fully implementing the policy of hosting the Olympics economically and making steady progress preparing for the games. We established the principle of integrating "safety, quality, function, construction time and cost" for building Olympic venues. In addition, we optimized the site selection, sizes, standards, and design plans of these venues, and the work of soliciting and evaluating designs for the construction of new venues was completed. We set up a "2008" construction command center, improved the organization and coordination of Olympic construction and signed letters of commitment with 31 venue owners and companies that will be working on Olympic venues. We worked with the Olympic Organizing Committee to successfully organize the Olympic torch relay in Beijing for the Athens Olympics and worked out measures for making Olympic activities people-friendly.

Intensifying reforms and improving the development environment. Progress was made in all aspects of the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and control over state assets was strengthened. The China Beijing Equity Exchange was established. Continued progress was made in opening up the market for infrastructure development and operation, and a number of projects were granted exclusive operating licenses, which enabled them to attract market financing. We began to experiment with a brokering system for the construction of nonprofit government-funded projects and took steps to eliminate red tape in the approval process for projects financed with non-government funds. We established a system for centralized management of all the city's water resources, further instituted the unified vertical management of land and resources and completed reform of government bodies at the district and county level. The Administrative Permission Law was fully implemented, reducing the number of items requiring city government permission by 59.3% and eliminating administrative fees on 14 items. Government work was made more transparent; the full service agent system and the one-stop approval policy were greatly expanded; and the Beijing Administrative Complaint Center was established. We further reduced the number of items for which enterprises must get approval, pay fees or be subject to annual inspections. We made it easier for businesses to start up, resulting in an unprecedented number of new business start-ups. Protection of intellectual property rights was strengthened; intensive rectification efforts were made on special areas; the framework of a system for food safety inspection was set up; and significant progress was made in rectifying and standardizing the order of the market economy.

Conscientiously carrying out employment and social security work and focusing on improving people's lives. We completed all 56 tasks set out at the last session. The employment policy was improved to incorporate able workers who have had their residence status changed from rural to urban, handicapped people and urban residents receiving a basic living allowance into unemployment registration or employment service programs. A total of 234,000 people entered the urban workforce for the first time. We increased employment assistance efforts and helped 53,000 unemployed men aged 50 or older and women aged 40 or older find new employment and 55,000 surplus farm laborers find jobs in the city. We improved the social security system by extending the eligibility for basic living allowances to 236,000 urban and rural residents with low incomes to provide assistance to as many needy people as possible. We implemented a policy of categorizing urban residents needing a basic living allowance and raised allowances for destitute residents. The pilot project to extend the social security system to people who have changed their residence status changed from rural to urban was expanded. A model for old-age insurance in rural areas and a method for funding it were formulated. Coverage of the new rural cooperative medical treatment system reached 64%. The guaranteed level for basic medical insurance in urban areas was raised, and non-resident workers in Beijing were provided with workers' compensation and medical insurance. The work of resolving the problem of dangerous and dilapidated housing continued, with certain revisions in the program, resulting in the demolition of about 300,000 square meters of floor space of such housing and the relocation of 24,000 households. We basically completed the work of moving people who paid a standard rate to rent privately owned properties out of such housing. The quality of urban and rural drinking water was improved, solving the problem of safe drinking water for 190,000 people. A total of 400 public restrooms were either newly built or refurbished to meet standards, and 57 low-cost public bathhouses were built to for the convenience of people with low incomes that were experiencing difficulties due to the rising water prices at public bathhouses.

Strengthening security work to safeguard the safety and stability of the capital. We won the battle to control and prevent high pathogenic avian flu and SARS, protecting the lives and health of the people. We carried out a series of intensive investigations of 910 longstanding dangerous conditions in workplace and public places, eliminated 828 of them and are working hard to resolve the rest. We clarified the responsibilities of government departments for safety supervision and implemented a system of responsibility for safety at different levels of departments and a system for ascertaining responsibility for safety violations. We set up a unified emergency response command system covering the entire city, formulated and implemented the Beijing Municipal Comprehensive Contingency Plan for Dealing with Public Emergencies as well as contingency plans for various specific types of emergencies, and trained more of all kinds of professional contingency teams, significantly strengthening the city's ability to prevent and reduce disasters. We conscientiously investigated and mediated conflicts and disputes among the people, worked hard to resolve major social conflicts as reported in group visits and effectively safeguarded the people's lawful rights and interests. Perpetrators of all types of criminal activities were strictly punished in accordance with the law, and all facets of public security were improved. Anti-terrorism and anti-riot work were intensified, and great efforts were made to prevent and combat any plots or sabotage on the part of any domestic or foreign enemy force. The militia and reserve forces were strengthened and army recruitment work was improved.

Working hard to develop spiritual civilization, democracy and the legal system. Acting on the unified arrangements of the CPC's Central Committee and Beijing Municipal Committee, we conducted an intensive study and education campaign on the important thought of Three Represents and the guiding principles of the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the Sixteenth Central Committee and continued to make progress in developing socialist spiritual civilization. New children's rhymes and songs were collected throughout society, and a new method was set up for strengthening the education of children in ideology and morality. Efforts to build clean government, fight corruption and increase general knowledge of the law among the general public were intensified. We made steady progress in ethnic minority, religious, overseas Chinese and Taiwan affairs work. Our foreign contacts and cooperation were expanded. We made continued progress in national defense education. We continued to encourage government agencies and civilians to support the military and give preferential treatment to families of service personnel and martyrs and continued to urge military personnel to support the government and respect civilians, and supported military personnel and civilians to work together to promote spiritual civilization, thus strengthening the unity between the military and the government and between military personnel and civilians. Greater emphasis was placed on work related to the affairs of women, children and senior citizens. Beijing was certified as a model wheelchair accessible city, and further progress was made in programs to help the disabled.

We conscientiously implemented the resolutions of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress and its Standing Committee and adhered to the system of municipal authorities reporting to the Standing Committee on important matters and reporting to the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPPCC on such matters. A deputy mayor and three department chiefs reported on their work to the Standing Committee. We handled 1,841 proposals and suggestions from deputies to the National People's Congress and the Beijing Municipal People's Congress and 1,422 proposals from members of CPPCC committees, which comprehensively promoted the government's work. We submitted 12 local statutes to the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress for examination and approval and promulgated 14 government regulations.

Fellow Deputies,

Our achievements over the past year in reform and opening up and the modernization drive would not have been possible without the correct leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council as well as the concern, support and assistance of all sectors of society and the painstaking efforts of the people of Beijing. Here, on behalf of the municipal government, I would like to pay our highest tribute and express our heartfelt thanks to the people of Beijing in all fields of endeavor for their hard work and their contributions, and to deputies to the people's congresses, members of CPPCC committees, democratic parties, federations of industry and commerce, persons without parties affiliation, mass organizations and people from all walks of life for their support and oversight. I would also like to pay my highest respects and give thanks to all the central government institutions in Beijing, the People's Liberation Army and the Armed Police, as well as the provinces, autonomous regions and other municipalities directly under the central government for their support for our work, and to our compatriots in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities, plus our international friends for the concern and support they have shown for our city's development.

A review of last year's work makes us keenly aware that we have just begun adopting a scientific outlook on development and that we need to constantly increase our understanding of the importance of the "five balances" [balancing urban and rural development, development among regions, economic and social development, development of man and nature, and domestic development and opening wider to the outside world, tr.] and explore new ways of achieving balance between these aspects. In addition, we must recognize that there are still large shortcomings in many aspects of our work that we need to overcome to be ready to host a distinctive and high level 2008 Olympic Games and to make all of Beijing's work rank near the top in the country. First, shortages in resources such as water, land and energy are becoming more severe and resources are not used efficiently, which means we urgently need to change the way our economy grows. Second, economic restructuring has been progressing slower than expected, we still have a long way to go to create a favorable soft environment for development, and longstanding problems that still plague efforts to attract business and investment urgently need to be resolved. The process of integrating and redistributing resources for social undertakings is progressing too slowly. Third, the accelerated pace of urbanization is making management of the city more difficult. Too much emphasis on development and too little on management is still a widespread problem. Controlling pollution, alleviating traffic congestion and cleaning up the environment are monumental tasks. The problems of workplace safety and public security remain severe, efforts to manage the floating population are too weak and city management needs to be further modernized. Fourth, we are faced with many challenges in building a harmonious socialist society. Structural problems in employment efforts are fairly serious; the employment environment for rural workers is poor; there are wide income disparities between people of different social strata and groups; the base for increasing rural incomes is unstable; and people with low incomes lead relatively difficult lives. Public order is bad in certain areas and public places, and the property crime rate has risen. Mass demonstrations are on the rise. Fifth, the general public's observance of the law and social norms needs improvement, and the overall level of spiritual civilization needs to rise. Sixth, the transformation of government functions has yet to be completed. The foundation is too weak, and work is inefficient. A small number of cadres have abused their power for personal gains or are corrupt and degenerate. We will pay close attention to the above problems and will conscientiously study ways to resolve them. We sincerely hope that all deputies to the people's congresses, members of CPPCC committees, democratic parties, federations of industry and commerce, persons without party affiliation and the general public will criticize and oversee the government's work and help us to do a better job.

II. Main Tasks for the Work in 2005

The year 2005 is the last year for implementing the Tenth Five-Year Plan and a crucial one in our preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games. Beijing will host the Olympics in just over three years from now. The tasks of accelerating reform and opening up and the modernization drive in the capital and all the work involved in successful preparation for the Olympics require a great deal of effort and immediate action. The general requirements for the work of the municipal government this year are as follows. We must take Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as our guide, follow the guidelines of the Sixteenth Congress of the CPC and the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of its Sixteenth Central Committee and the series of important directives the central authorities issued concerning work in the city of Beijing, and comprehensively implement the arrangements set by the Ninth CPC Beijing Municipal Committee at its Ninth Plenary Session. In addition, we must let all our work be guided by a scientific outlook on development, balance urban and rural development, continue to make structural innovations, open wider to the outside world, adjust the economic structure, change the pattern of economic growth, develop the capital's economy, improve city management, build a harmonious socialist society, promote spiritual civilization, improve democracy and the legal system, and strengthen the foundation for realizing the strategic concept of "New Beijing, Great Olympics."

To fully meet these requirements and establish a correct outlook on our achievements, the municipal government has reformed and adjusted the way it sets the targets for economic and social development for this year. The major regulatory targets are as follows. The registered unemployment rate in urban areas should stay within 2.3%, locally collected revenue should increase by 13%, the consumer price index should be held to within 103%, and energy consumption for each 10,000 yuan of gross domestic product should be reduced by 5%. The forecasts for major indicators are as follows. Beijing's GDP should increase by 9% and both urban per capita disposable income and rural per capita net income should increase by at least 6% in real terms.

We will focus on the following work this year.

1. Taking full advantage of the opportunity provided by the Olympics to raise the city's overall level of development and management.

To ensure a distinctive and high level Olympics, all development and management work of the city must reflect the concept of a "Green, Scientific and People-friendly Olympics." A countdown display will be set up to mark the time to completion of projects and a detailed plan will be formulated to ensure that all projects are high quality and completed on time.

We will spare no effort to ensure successful completion of Olympic venues and auxiliary facilities. We will strictly follow the principle of integrating "safety, quality, function, construction time and cost" and arrange our work according to plan. We will begin construction on all new venues, the National Conference Center, the Olympic village and the journalists' village. Projects to renovate and expand old facilities will be started in good time, and plans to build temporary facilities will be promptly implemented. We will speed up the construction of roads and municipal facilities surrounding the venues and start work on scenic projects such as a public square, water fountains and vegetation in the central area of the Olympic Park. We will strengthen supervision and auditing and implement the Sunshine Project to ensure that the Olympics are run in an honest and aboveboard manner. We will work closely with the Olympic Organizing Committee in carrying out all the preparatory work for the Olympics.

We will do a good job of developing the city's infrastructure. We will accelerate construction on four rail transit lines, the north extension of the Capital Airport Expressway and other expressway projects, high-speed city roads such as the Lianhuachi West Road and the Tonghuihe North Road, and city thoroughfares like the Chaoyang Road. We will continue to improve the "micro-circulation" system for city roads, press ahead with road construction and improvement of the public transit system in Huilongguan and seven other crucial areas, optimize the traffic pattern within the Fifth Ring Road and complete work on high-speed, high-capacity public transit facilities for the South Axial Road. We will promote restructuring of the energy supply, focusing efforts on auxiliary projects for the No. 2 Shaanxi-Beijing natural gas pipeline in Beijing and the project to extend the heating pipeline network westward to reach the Gongzhufen and Chegongzhuang areas. We will add 120,000 new natural gas customers and increase the area supplied with central heating by 3 million square meters. We will accelerate construction on five sewage plants and finish the work of cleaning up 40 kilometers of waterways in the city. Construction will begin on the key control projects of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Household refuse safely disposed of in the eight central districts should reach 94%, and in the outlying districts 40%, and sewage treatment in the two areas should reach 70% and 40% respectively.

We will strengthen control of air pollution and improve the ecosystem. We will formulate and implement the 11th stage of the air pollution control measures and continue to cut the total volume of pollutants discharged by the most seriously polluting enterprises. A total of 2,000 coal-fired boilers will be converted to use clean fuel; 3,800 old diesel-powered public buses will be retired; and 20,000 taxis will be replaced by new ones that meet the Euro III emission standards. Supervision and control of dust at construction sites will be strengthened. We will consolidate our achievements to ensure air quality in urban areas reaches Level 2 or better 63% of the time. We will continue development of the three green ecological shields, i.e. mountainous areas, plains and green isolation zones, and improve forests to increase forest coverage for the city as a whole to 50%. In connection with the need to develop disaster-prevention facilities and conserve and collect water in the city, we will push ahead with greening projects to plant more trees in parks and to landscape roads to increase the landscaped area to 42.5% in the eight districts in the city proper.

We will work hard to improve the city's environment. We will conscientiously implement the Plan for Improvement of the Environment of Beijing, which requires that work start from the city center and gradually move toward the outlying areas and that all projects be finished by 2007. We will concentrate this year on resolving the problem of 69 villages within the Third Ring Road and around the Olympic venues, cleaning up 272 residential compounds of government-owned housing directly under the control of the municipal government, removing 309 outdoor advertisements from city streets and implementing a demonstration campaign in 100 major streets called the "six nos" [no improper discarding of junk, no improper disposal of garbage, no spitting, no going to the toilet in improper places, no hanging out clothes or other items from windows, balconies, etc. and no storage of household possessions in inappropriate locations, tr.]. A master plan will be formulated to clean up walls facing main streets. A total of 700 public restrooms will be either newly built or refurbished to meet standards.

We must seek both temporary and permanent solutions to problems and establish an effective long-term management mechanism. On the basis of the legally defined powers of government bodies and a principle of making the scope of their powers and responsibilities coincide, we will straighten out and standardize the responsibilities of each body in enforcing administrative law, develop a mechanism for coordinating their actions and implement a responsibility system in a continued effort to improve overall administrative law enforcement in city management. We will strengthen primary-level management and control over routine activities and bring problems that are particularly vexing to the general public under overall control, such as those of unauthorized taxi drivers and illegal peddlers. In addition, we will work hard to eliminate blind spots in management, which allow "dirtiness, disorder, poor sanitation and danger" to occur, and maintain and manage all municipal facilities well. We will plan and build various public service facilities, putting the convenience of city residents first. An extensive public education campaign on traffic safety and traffic laws will be conducted to instill in city residents the good habit of respecting traffic laws. We will provide better services for and tighten control over the floating population.

Fellow Deputies,

The State Council has approved in principle the new master urban development plan for Beijing. When the plan is approved, it will further clarify the guiding principles, development direction and overall arrangements for the development of the capital. This document will be a programmatic document for guiding construction and development in the capital. This year we must complete the plans for developing educational, medical and other public service facilities, organize the formulation of statutory detailed plans for the development of core towns and new towns, and quickly work out a short-term development plan that clearly specifies the chronological order of development and the focus of near-term development efforts on the basis of instructions from the State Council and the requirements set out in the master plan. We need to carry out research on methods and means of population control from the perspective of management systems and mechanisms and work hard to improve the quality of our population. We must define the functions of districts and counties and formulate a new system of evaluation criteria based on the distribution of resources through market forces to improve macro-guidance of economic and social development in these areas. Supervision of city planning must be strengthened to resolutely safeguard the seriousness and authoritativeness of the city plan.

2. Focusing on economic restructuring and accelerating efforts to change the pattern of economic growth.

We will conscientiously carry out the macro-regulatory policies and measures formulated by the central authorities, keep fixed asset investment at a reasonable level and increase the role of consumption in stimulating the economy. In addition, we must solve a number of problems in economic development such as people paying too much attention to outward appearances and not enough to internal conditions, constantly increasing stocks without regard for total inventory, putting too much emphasis on quantity at the expense of quality, too much emphasis on speed at the expense of efficiency and too much foreign investment and too few services. Resolution of these problems should improve the quality and efficiency of economic growth.

We will accelerate the industrial application of key technologies for which Chinese organizations hold intellectual property rights to raise the development level of new and high technology industries and modern manufacturing industries. We will increase support for efforts to realize all aspects of the "five-year upgrading plan" and make fuller use of the Zhongguancun Science Park as a role model in carrying out comprehensive reform and making innovations. The incentive mechanism that takes into consideration intellectual contributions in the distribution of enterprise equity will be improved, and the funding problems of small and medium-sized science-based enterprises will be resolved as quickly as possible. We will consolidate Beijing's leading position in the software and integrated circuit design industries by accelerating development of the Zhongguancun Software Park and other industrial centers. We will promote the concentration and intensive development of manufacturing industries, accelerate development of key industrial bases such as the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone and guide the location of new industrial facilities and the relocation of existing facilities to appropriate development zones to foster concentration based on industrial type or technological level. Development of key projects in competitive industries such as automobiles and electronics should be promoted through formation of manufacturing groups or chains. We will formulate and implement development programs for the fashion, food, and packaging and printing industries and support the growth of specifically urban industries.

We will step up efforts to improve the structure of tertiary industry. We will seize the opportunity provided by the opening of Renminbi services to foreign banks to speed up the development of the Central Business District and Finance Street and work energetically to attract all kinds of domestic and foreign financial institutions and business centers to open offices in Beijing. We will intensify efforts to reorganize local financial institutions in preparation for the establishment of the Rural Commerce Bank of Beijing on the basis of rural credit cooperatives. We will formulate a plan for the development of the cultural industry and support policies in line with the objectives and requirements for pillar industries, so as to expand and strengthen our competitive industries such as theatrical performance, publishing and distribution and copyright commerce, film and TV program production and commerce, cartoon, animation and Internet game development and production, hosting cultural conferences and exhibitions, and antique and artwork commerce. We will carry out reforms of state-owned cultural enterprises and institutions, and encourage non-government capital to run cultural enterprises. We will promote the integration of new and high technology industries with service industries, and develop new types of service industries such as e-business, value-added information services and comprehensive technical service. We will work to optimize all aspects of the tourism environment and use high-end products to stimulate rapid development of the tourist industry and the conference and exposition sector of the economy. We will gradually relocate wholesalers of small commodities that cause traffic and environmental problems and present major safety hazards away from central city districts. We will accelerate the development of new types of business, such as chain grocery stores and convenience stores, in outlying areas and newly built communities to meet the consumer demand of urban and rural residents.

We will promote the development of an open economy. We will seize and exploit current favorable opportunities, organically integrate efforts to open the city wider with efforts to accelerate the development of competitive industries and improve the way the economy grows, attract domestic and international capital to Beijing, and improve the quality and level of utilization of foreign investment. We will expedite the opening up of services such as the finance, culture, education and tourism industries, energetically seek work outsourced by service industries of other countries, and promote the development of trade in services. We will give full play to the China Beijing Equity Exchange as an equity transaction platform, formulate correlated policies, and encourage multinationals to participate in the reorganization of state-owned enterprises in a variety of ways. We will improve and implement the policies and measures for opening urban infrastructure development to foreign competitors and work more quickly to attract foreign investment. Starting with institutional innovation and a focus on major projects, we will introduce advanced technologies, assimilate them better and use them to improve our innovativeness. We will provide policy support and regular follow-up service to key producers of new and high technology products, increase technological content and added value in these products, and optimize the export mix. We will establish a mechanism for trade promotion in which governments at municipal and district/county levels play the leading role with cooperation from relevant intermediaries and that supports and assists small and medium-sized enterprises in expanding their international markets. We will make innovations in foreign economic cooperation and support enterprises in making investments abroad.

We will vigorously develop the recycling sector of the economy and build a conservation-minded city. We will maintain the strictest land and water resources management system. We will complete the revision of the city's master plan for land-use, formulate a plan for the use and supply of land, decide what land should be developed or withheld, utilize the land thriftily and intensively, and use inventoried land first for newly launched projects. We will tighten control over total water consumption and water quotas, make full use of the water pricing mechanism and promote water conservation to cut the amount of water consumed per 10,000 yuan of gross domestic product by 9%. We will develop Yizhuang into a water conservation model area. We will expedite efforts to install separate water and electric meters in each household in areas of single-story housing. We will lay 70 kilometers more pipeline for recycled water in the city proper, use more recycled water in landscape maintenance, dust reduction on roads, public fountains, and car washing, develop areas irrigated by recycled water and bring the amount of recycled water used up to 30% of the city's total water consumption. We will strictly enforce the new construction standards concerning energy conservation, and we will set targets for energy conserving residential districts and start pilot projects. We will increase investment to accelerate the dissemination of new energy-efficient technologies, materials and appliances. We will intensify publicity and education in energy conservation and raise society's awareness of conservation. We will develop a system and plan for developing the recycling sector of the economy and concentrate efforts on formulating and implementing standards for industrial land use, water and energy consumption, environmental protection, employment capacity and beneficial effects. We will set up a system for comprehensively appraising industries and selecting the best ones and gradually eliminate those industries and enterprises with high energy consumption and serious pollution. We will formulate detailed rules for implementing the catalogue of products that must be scrutinized for clean production and carry out experimental and demonstration projects in representative industries such as the pharmaceutical industry.

We will improve the regulation of economic activities. We will work out a plan for strategically balancing key energy resources based on the capital's demand for energy to fuel economic and social development and strengthen regional development and cooperation. We will balance energy restructuring and environmental protection. We will guarantee the overall balance between supply and demand for energy, improve the energy structure, strengthen energy demand side management, draw up better emergency plans and build up reserves to ensure adequate energy supplies and alleviate shortages of coal, electricity, oil and transportation. We will do a good job of storing, allocating, transporting and regulating the supply of important commodities such as grains and edible oils to keep their market stable.

We will draw up the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Beijing's Economic and Social Development. We will continue to do Beijing's share of China's first economic census well. We will energetically participate in the work of drawing up the state strategic plan for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province.

3. Stabilizing and improving support policies and resolving the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

We will protect farmers' rights effectively. This year we will strengthen all measures that support rural areas, and in no way decrease the preferential treatment that has already been granted to farmers. We will continue to give outlying areas preferential treatment in allocating government investment and carefully integrate and implement all existing policies to make them more effective. We will complete the confirmation of contracted land-use rights in rural areas, make it easier for farmers to transfer these rights, diversify the entities that have the right to use rural land, and develop economies of moderate scales. We will complete the investigation of property registration for collectively owned land in rural areas, begin to issue certificates of ownership of such land and certificates of land-use rights for collective development purposes in rural areas on a trial basis, and devise a method for supervising the transfer of these rights. We will push forward the reform of the rural collective ownership system on the basis of "gradual progress in the near suburbs and expanded pilot projects in the outer suburbs."

We will increase the overall productive capacity of agriculture. We need to make the system for farmland protection as strict as possible to maintain the current level, quality and use of primary farmland and implement the system down to the level of individual households and plots. We will deepen agricultural restructuring and fully implement the 221 Action Plan [two surveys, the two supports of science and capital and one comprehensive platform for agricultural information, tr.] and establish seven major agricultural systems [system to improve crop strains and superior livestock breeds, system for making innovations in agricultural science and technology and applying science and technology, system for protecting animals and plants, system to assure quality and safety of farm products, system for providing agricultural information and for marketing farm products, system for protecting agricultural resources and ecological conservation and system of commercial services related to agriculture, tr.] to modernize specifically urban agriculture. We will fully support the development of leading enterprises, cooperative trade organizations and industry associations to strengthen the organization of farmers and make agricultural operation more industrial. We will develop water-efficient agriculture by increasing investment in small irrigation projects, launching a pilot project to subsidize farmers' purchases of water conservation equipment and controlling the use of irrigation water through quotas to make a total of 20,000 hectares of farmland water-efficient. We will continue the trial reform of the system for expanding the application of agricultural technology, focusing on efforts to strengthen its nonprofit functions and loosen control over commercial services. We need to energetically explore ways of introducing government policy based agricultural insurance. We will strengthen oversight for investment products for agricultural production to promote the development of a system for safe production of foodstuffs and agricultural bases that meet designated standards and implement a system of certification and accreditation for farm products. We must work hard to successfully prevent and control major epidemics of animals and plants.

We will redouble our efforts to develop mountain areas. We must make eco-system improvement our top priority in this work. We will continue to improve reforestation efforts, preserve water sources, conserve water and topsoil and successfully implement projects to prevent and control the sources of dust storms that plague Beijing and Tianjin, focusing on afforestation of barren hills and overall control of small river valleys. We will improve policies to support the development of cultivation of exotic fruits, environmentally friendly aquaculture and livestock breeding, and leisure and tourism. We will formulate policies to encourage and guide non-government investment in the comprehensive development of mountain areas. We will consolidate and improve the mechanism for compensating farmers to grow trees for ecological conservation and continue to encourage the closure of coal and mineral mines. We will resettle a total of 7,000 mountain dwellers and appropriately deal with the vacated hills and land.

We well accelerate the industrialization and urbanization of outlying areas. We will increase government investment and encourage and guide all types of non-government investment in infrastructure development of outlying areas, focusing efforts on mountain areas. Equipment will be installed to supply water that meets drinking standards for 300,000 rural residents. We will complete an additional190 kilometers of asphalt roads in the project to connect all villages to major roads. We will select core towns with the proper basic conditions and concentrate on their development to encourage people and industries to congregate there. We will work out relevant policies and carry out pilot projects to upgrade older villages and develop new ones and better organize rural land to make all land use more efficient. We will promote the orderly movement of processing and manufacturing industries to industrial zones in outlying areas and speed up the development of local economies and competitive industries. We will improve and continue to implement the plan to increase tourism in outlying areas and strongly support tertiary industries, mainly tourism, leisure travel and conference facilities. We will explore ways to set up a mechanism that combines credit and financial support to help rural residents start their own businesses to expedite the development of private enterprises in outlying areas.

4. Deepening institutional reform and optimizing the development environment.

We will continue the reform of SOEs and the system for managing state-owned assets and promote the development of non-public sectors of the economy. We will use "adjustment, transformation, divestiture and bankruptcy" to quicken the pace of reorganizing and restructuring the state economy. We will continue to carry out reorganization and integration of state-owned holding companies and enterprise groups operated by the municipal government, focusing on those related to infrastructure. We will accelerate the transformation of SOEs into stock companies and promote the development of the mixed ownership sector of the economy, with a goal of completing 50% of the work of transforming all SOEs this year. We will basically complete the work of separating secondary lines of business from core businesses in large and medium-sized SOEs and converting their secondary lines into independent companies. We will steadily proceed with bankruptcy proceedings for SOEs that have no hope of turning around. We will improve the oversight and management systems for state-owned assets, complete inventories of assets and liabilities, standardize performance evaluation and supervision of benefit packages for SOE executives, ensure that all profits generated from use of government funds are turned over to the government and expand the experiment of operations budgets. We will carry out trial reforms of SOE boards of directors to give them more power over personnel decisions and expand the scope of open selection and appointment of SOE executives. We will follow the policy of allowing non-public investment in industries and areas where it is not prohibited by laws and regulations, encourage the participation of non-public sectors in the reorganization and transformation of SOEs and the development of the city's infrastructure, public facilities and social undertakings, and gradually change practices to treat both Chinese and foreign investment and both government and non-government investment equally. We will further improve the systems of commercial services and credit guarantees, establish a fund for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and provide financial support for enterprises that have development potential and can serve as role models.

We will deepen the reform of the financial management system and the investment and financing systems. We will continue to improve the system of public finance by gradually standardizing the types of projects for which government funds may be used to ensure funding for projects that are purely of a public service nature such as those for elementary education, basic scientific research, family planning and public cultural facilities. We will improve the social security system, the public health care system and the food safety system and guarantee funding needed to ensure public security and safety in the workplace. We will improve the system of financial relations between the municipal government and district and county government authorities by clearly defining the spending responsibilities of each on the basis of adjusting government revenue and expenditures in line with responsibilities so that their funding level matches their level of responsibility. Transfer payments will be increased, and the method of allocating transfer payments will be improved. We will strengthen management of budgetary expenditures and centralize payments from the state treasury for all municipal-level administrative bodies to improve the performance of funds. We will intensify tax collection and administration and improve the quality of taxpayer services. We will allow enterprises to make their own investment decisions and eliminate review of projects that are not government financed. The government will examine and approve only major projects and a limited number of projects where public interests are at stake, and merely record all others. We will carry out pilot projects to reform the way for-profit social undertakings are financed, expand the scope of the brokering system for the construction of government-funded public service projects and improve the mechanism for overseeing and assessing government investment. We will vigorously promote the system of franchise operations, work to make development and operation of all new infrastructure projects more market-oriented, straighten out prices for public products and services, make better use of our infrastructure assets and increase the proportion of direct financing. We will strengthen the role of government investment in guiding and stimulating non-government investment. We will make comprehensive use of planning and guidance as well as land supply policy and other policies in order to optimize the distribution of investments over industries and areas.

Reform of the city administrative system will be carried forward. On the basis of the reform to improve the relationship between community-level offices and professional administration departments of the government and the relationship between democratic autonomy at the community level and government administration, we will launch pilot projects, draw conclusions from our experience and improve the mechanism for overall coordination and oversight of community-level offices to fulfill our responsibilities to provide professional administration and services. We will improve community development efforts, improve the mechanism for citizen participation in city administration and strengthen democratic autonomy in communities. We will cultivate community service organizations, make full use of the role of community service centers and constantly raise the quality and level of services. Further steps will be taken to standardize property management. We will work out effective measures to correctly handle the relationship between community neighborhood committees, property-owner committees and property management companies.

We will take further steps to improve the intangible investment environment. We will make transformation of government functions the first priority in efforts to optimize the development environment. We will accelerate efforts to establish and improve rules and standards for all areas of investment. We will utilize indirect and dynamic administrative measures such as government guidance and administrative contracts to further improve the administrative complaint mechanism and raise the efficiency and quality of administrative services. We will enhance transparency in government work. The basis, requirements, procedures and time limits for matters needing administrative approval and the rights and obligations of those seeking approval will be made public. We will improve the system for formulating and publishing such documents and make more government regulations and normative documents easily accessible. We will accelerate the implementation of e-government and expand online administration in order to promote resource sharing among government departments. Government departments will better coordinate their actions so that they can act in concert when implementing government policy to truly lower the investment and operation costs of enterprises. We will study unsolved problems in efforts to attract business and investment according to type of problem and solve them one by one. We will further improve the system of credit services for businesses and draw up a plan for establishing a credit system for individuals. We will strengthen the organization, coordination and oversight role of administrative complaint centers, carefully investigate and strictly prosecute persons carrying out illegal activities in the performance of official duties. We will carry out special operations to protect intellectual property rights, focusing on curbing pirating and trademark and patent infringement, in order to effectively curb all forms of infringement of intellectual property rights.

5. Developing social undertakings and strengthening the building of socialist spiritual civilization.

As we accelerate the development of social undertakings, we must also have a scientific outlook on development. We will make greater structural adjustments and continue to give preferential treatment to outlying areas and low-level government organizations in the allocation of investment to alleviate the imbalance in the development of social undertakings between the urban and rural areas and among regions. We will resolutely work to prevent haphazard investment decisions that do not consider cost and demand and shift from extensive to intensive investment. We will restructure existing resources and make better use of them by such means as reorganization and replacement to improve their performance.

We will fully implement the strategy for developing education in the capital. We will implement all policies for developing human resources and utilize all forms of education and training to constantly raise the quality of the workforce. We will continue to expand investment in education and accelerate restructuring of the types of education available to improve the quality of education. We will give priority to the development of compulsory education in rural areas and improve conditions in primary and middle schools in rural areas. We will complete the redistribution of 100 of these schools and build sports facilities in 500 primary and middle schools. We will promote reform of the elementary school curriculum and truly promote competence-oriented education. We will improve teacher training, focusing efforts on the training of primary and middle school principals and teachers in rural areas. We will accelerate reform and development of vocational education to turn out more people with useful skills, focusing on support for the development of badly needed training programs in 50 academic fields and 50 model distance education centers in rural areas. We will make full use of the advantages of higher education institutions under the jurisdiction of the central government located in Beijing, revise the development goals of city-owned institutions of higher learning and restructure academic disciplines and specialties in city universities. We will promote educational restructuring and support and standardize privately run schools to promote their sound development. We need to intensify our efforts to stop the unauthorized charging of fees by school, conscientiously safeguard campus safety and improve the environment around campuses.

We will promote innovation in science and technology. We will deepen the reform of the management system of science and technology and develop a mechanism for innovation that is led by the enterprises and integrates the efforts of enterprises, universities and research institutions. We will improve policies for encouraging innovation in public finance, banking, land use and human resources and help enterprise expand investment in research and development to make them better able to independently make innovations and develop core technologies that will give them their own intellectual property rights. The role of the technology market as a platform and the scope of technology transfers will be expanded. We will more closely integrate technological resources with the use of industrial investment and financial capital and promote the conversion of technological advantages into industrial strength. We will support research and development in a number of key and general technologies in fields such as information and communications, biomedicine, new materials, the integration of optics, mechanics and electronics, and modern agriculture to raise the overall level and core competitiveness of key industries. We will organize the implementation of a number of projects to accelerate the application of scientific and technological advances in outlying areas and strengthen the supporting role of science and technology in the overall development of urban and rural areas.

We will speed up the development of medical and health care services. We need to formulate regional plans for health care development and strengthen efforts to restructure health care resources, optimize their distribution and improve the health care service system. We must continue to use urban health care resources to support health care in rural areas and complete basic development of 1,486 community health care clinics to serve mountain areas, focusing on developing the health care infrastructure and training medical personnel. The public health care infrastructure will be strengthened to improve the emergency health care service network for the capital, focusing efforts on development of emergency clinics in community health care service centers and completion of all aspects of the plan to build emergency health care clinics in townships and towns. Efforts to develop consulting rooms and special clinics for infectious disease patients will be accelerated, and key projects such as the demolition and relocation of Ditan Hospital and the expansion of You'an Hospital will receive due attention. We need to carry forward the reform of the investment and financing management system for hospitals, carry out pilot projects for the reform of the ownership system of state-owned hospitals and explore ways to set up organizations to oversee the hospital's state-owned assets and to gradually separate management from operation of hospitals. We will consolidate the achievements hospitals have made in rectifying unhealthy tendencies and redouble our efforts to address such practices as hospitals taking kickbacks from suppliers and making arbitrary charges, doctors accepting money from patients and taking kickbacks from the hospital pharmacy for prescribing unnecessary medicines. We will continue work to standardize centralized bidding and purchasing of pharmaceuticals to reduce the cost of drugs for the general public. We will expand health education., focusing on teaching more people about AIDS prevention.

We will promote the development of cultural undertakings. We will extensively develop mass cultural activities. We will establish a public cultural service system that emphasizes cultural activities at the primary level; support the establishment of 48 village culture centers and 759 village culture offices; extend radio and television coverage to 260 unincorporated mountain villages under the project to extend radio and television coverage to every village; and develop pilot projects to protect ethnic minority and folk culture. Construction of the Capital Museum of China, the China Film Museum and other key projects will be accelerated. We will explore new ways to use market forces to promote public service cultural undertakings. We will develop and improve the management of sports facilities for the general public and promote fitness activities for the general public to improve the overall physical fitness of the population. We will continue our plan for winning Olympic gold medals and improve our sports competitiveness.

We will do everything we can to strengthen the building of spiritual civilization. Improvement of the intangible environment is the most challenging aspect of our preparations for the Olympics. We will follow the Guidelines for Implementing the Plan for Hosting a People-friendly Olympics, carry out an extensive publicity and education campaign on civilized and polite behavior, launch the plan to solicit Olympic volunteers, strengthen the protection of historic and cultural heritage sites, expand international cultural exchange, continue to encourage Beijing people to learn foreign languages, educate the masses concerning Olympic events and raise the overall level of civility of Beijing's citizens. We will extensively undertake mass activities to boost spiritual civilization and promote such activities in all communities, villages, towns and industries, encourage a scientific, healthy and civil lifestyle and go all out to make Beijing a national model of civilized behavior. We will intensify publicity and education campaigns on the law and take active measures to provide legal assistance. We will pay close attention to the moral education of children and develop an educational system that reflects the characteristics of the capital and integrates school, family and society. We will work hard to develop philosophy and social sciences and propagate scientific knowledge. We will be unwavering in our fight against pornographic and illegal publications, establish a law enforcement agency to oversee all cultural markets to improve supervision of these markets and the Internet. We will strengthen the work of building reserve national defense forces, promote national defense education and raise the people's awareness of the importance of national defense. We will encourage government agencies and civilians to support the military and give preferential treatment to families of service personnel and martyrs and urge military personnel to support the government and respect civilians. We will formulate measures for improving our work relating to ethnic affairs and do our best to promote economic development in ethnic minority rural areas. We will conscientiously implement the Regulations on Religious Affairs of the State Council and further implement the policies on the property of religious groups. We will continue to promote exchanges and cooperation between Beijing and Hong Kong, between Beijing and Macao, and between Beijing and Taiwan and do a good job in work relating to overseas Chinese affairs. We will intensify our work on population control and family planning. We will protect the legitimate rights and interests of women, children, senior citizens and the disabled in accordance with the law and accelerate the construction of handicap-friendly facilities.

6. Continuing to put people first and working to make Beijing the most harmonious socialist community in China.

We will work out an employment mechanism suitable for both urban and rural areas and steadily increase incomes of their residents. We will strive to create employment for 190,000 urban residents and reemployment for 170,000 urban registered unemployed. We will increase credit support to small and medium-sized enterprises and to individuals starting businesses in order to promote economic development and the "three concurrences" employment system [carrying out feasibility analysis of projects concurrently with forecasting their employment demands, doing construction work on projects concurrently with solving the problem of relocating displaced industrial and agricultural workers, and putting projects into operation concurrently with providing employment services, tr.]. We will continue implementing the plan to create 300,000 jobs in local communities in three years and make the plan more specifically targeted. We will continue to implement the plan for doubling the number of new jobs. We will meet the goal of creating 10,000 jobs through new businesses started by 1,000 unemployed people. We will improve the system for registering surplus rural workers and include all persons who are willing and able to work in a unified citywide program. We will formulate measures to transfer rural workers to other types of work. We will improve township, town and village employment services to strengthen employment guidance and services as well as job training. We will formulate preferential policies to encourage unemployed people to seek jobs in other regions to lighten employment pressures on areas with high unemployment rates. We will continue to adopt measures such as preferential policies, guaranteed employment services and employment assistance to provide one-to-one service throughout the employment process for people who have a hard time finding jobs. We will energetically implement the collective contract system and standardize hiring practices in enterprises. We will strengthen oversight over payment of wages in the construction industry to basically solve the problem of unpaid wages due to migrant rural workers.

We will continue to work unceasingly on social security work. We will work to incorporate workers who have shifted from agricultural to non-agricultural work because of their land being expropriated, people who have had their residence status changed from rural to urban, and migrant workers in Beijing into the social insurance system as soon as possible. Guidelines for the reform of the rural social insurance system will be formulated, and reform of old-age insurance in rural areas will be carried out. We need to improve the policies related to the new kind of rural cooperative medical system and expand the system's coverage. We will continue to improve the urban old-age insurance system, with work directed at establishing personal old-age pension accounts and setting up enterprise retirement systems that pay annuities. We will expand coverage of social insurance, focusing on extending coverage to people in private businesses, self-employed individuals and people who do not work at regular jobs, striving to reach at least 95% contribution for all funds.

We will devote a great deal of effort to improve the assistance system for urban and rural areas to effectively guarantee a minimum standard of living for people in need. The subsistence guarantee system will be improved. We will set up a standardized mechanism to adjust subsistence allowances on the basis of the consumer price index to determine the strength of emergency measures such as temporary relief allowances. This mechanism should have dynamic management and guarantee a minimum standard of living for people in need. We will constantly work to improve the special assistance system to obtain all the benefits of comprehensive assistance. We will implement all aspects of the medical assistance system for urban and rural areas and subsidize the participation of all rural recipients of relief assistance in the local cooperative medical system. We will continue renovating dangerous buildings occupied by destitute rural families and extend coverage of housing assistance to more urban residents. We will study measures to provide assistance for heating costs in urban areas. We will strengthen temporary assistance to help solve the financial problems of poor families with incomes just above the standard for subsistence level. We will carefully monitor the increase in the incomes of low-income groups in rural area in order to provide targeted assistance to recipients in need and shorten the time it takes them to shake off poverty and lead a more comfortable life.

We will take effective measures to resolve people's housing difficulties. Taking the safety of people in the capital as the starting point, we will adopt a variety of measures to accelerate the pace of demolition and renovation of dangerous and dilapidated buildings. This work should follow government guidelines, include the participation of the general public and be subject to market forces. Acting on the advice of experts, we will preserve ancient sites in the city and evacuate residents from older areas of the city where the population density is too great. More public funds will be earmarked to support faster development of supporting infrastructure facilities and ensure steady progress in development of the six trial preservation sites of historic and cultural interest. We will solve the problem of 8,000 families living in dangerous housing, focusing on ameliorating potential dangers. We will build a total of two million square meters of practical, affordable housing and make more low-rent housing available, giving priority to people needing housing because they have been evicted from dangerous and dilapidated housing. The procedures and policies must be strictly followed for demolition work and the work should be carried out in a legal and civilized manner. We will successfully complete 55 important tasks, many of which are sensitive or will be difficult to solve and directly affect the well being of the people.

We will put our full efforts into the safety work of the capital. We will conscientiously search for sources of danger throughout the city and correct any type of potentially dangerous condition. For potential hazards that cannot easily be remedied in the short term, strict precautions should be taken and the problems should be solved as soon as possible. All laws, rules and regulations must be strictly enforced, and the system by which social organizations have responsibility for solving the problems and the government has responsibility for supervising them should be followed. We will energetically promote standardization of safety and quality, set standards for safety in production, strengthen routine supervision and stop all types of accidents by preventing them at their source. We will establish a unified food safety monitoring system for the whole city and a system of random quality and safety inspection followed by public announcement of results for agricultural and sideline products. Inspection and testing of medicines, health food products, medical equipment and cosmetics will be intensified to ensure the safety of food and medicines. Product quality supervision and inspection and targeted control efforts will be intensified, and the results of testing will be publicly announced quarterly for key products in an active effort to guide consumers to buy safe products. The emergency system will be improved. A sound management system and work mechanism will be put in place to respond to various types of emergencies, emergency resources will be integrated, the quality of the team of professional safety workers will be raised and emergency response exercises will be carefully conducted to increase the city's ability to respond and handle emergencies. The fire safety infrastructure will be improved. Disaster prevention knowledge should be publicized throughout the city to increase safety awareness among residents and strengthen their emergency preparedness.

The stability of the capital will be resolutely safeguarded. Conflicts among the people arising from new circumstances need to be correctly handled. Channels for handling wishes, complaints and demands from citizens will be made more convenient and new channels developed. A mechanism will be developed to link feedback from letters and visits to the government with research on the implementation of government policy in an active effort to avoid and appropriately handle mass disturbances. The work system that links conflict resolution among citizens, resolution through the public security system and resolution through the judicial system must be improved to create a work mechanism and work situation characterized by smooth coordination among departments and to promote social harmony and stability. We will further strengthen all facets of public security. Efforts will be made to turn some of the responsibilities for good social order and crime prevention over to the general public, make such work more scientific, put the work on a legal footing and increase the ability of the general public to help maintain good social order and prevent crime by creating safe communities and safe villages. We will use legal means to crack down on all types of illegal activities, make greater efforts to investigate and eliminate pornography, gambling and illegal drugs and pay close attention to the struggle against terrorism to make the people feel safer and protect their lives and property.

III. Strengthening the Government's Self-Development Efforts

and Improving Its Ability to Function According to Law

Faced with new circumstances, new duties and new requirements arising from reform and opening up and the modernization drive in the capital, governments at all levels must firmly establish a scientific outlook on development and a correct outlook on their achievements. They should accelerate the transformation of their functions, do their basic work better and continually improve their performance and services to meet the requirement that governments should govern scientifically, democratically and in accordance with the law.

1. Comprehensively promoting government administration according to law to develop government based on law.

The city must be run in accordance with the law. The Administrative Permission Law and the Guidelines on Comprehensively Promoting Government Administration According to Law must be carefully followed to redefine government administration, streamline government procedures, standardize government actions and develop a sound mechanism for monitoring government administration. Administration in accordance with the law must become the rule in all aspects of government work. We will work hard to make all administrative actions legal, make procedures aboveboard, be effective, serve the people, be honest and trustworthy and integrate authority with responsibility. More legislation on government administration is needed, with the focus on passing laws to improve food safety, provide security for major public events and outsource management of urban infrastructure. In addition, the quality of legislation the government passes needs to be improved. We will develop a scientific and democratic decision-making mechanism that combines expert discussion with public participation and government decision-making to improve the administrative decision-making process. A system will be established that traces feedback on decisions and ascertains responsibility for decision-making. We will deepen restructuring of the administrative law enforcement system and continue to implement the responsibility system for administrative law enforcement and the evaluation and assessment system. We will establish a system for ascertaining the responsibility of administrative law enforcement personnel to ensure that administrative organs and personnel genuinely carry out their duties and responsibilities. We will strictly implement the resolutions of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress and its Standing Committee, continue the system for reporting major matters to the Standing Committee, and municipal government officials should do a good job in reporting on their work and conscientiously accept supervision. We will continue the practice of carefully listening to comments from CPPCC committees, democratic parties and federations of industry and commerce, and persons without party affiliation and conscientiously accept democratic oversight before deciding on major affairs. We will carefully handle the motions and suggestions of the people's congresses and the proposals of CPPCC committees and use them to direct all aspects of our work. We will strengthen internal supervision in administrative organs and conscientiously accept judicial oversight and oversight by public opinion.

2. Strengthening basic work to improve administration.

Doing a good job in the basic work of government departments is a prerequisite for improving administrative ability. Governments at all levels and all government departments, particularly leading cadres, must diligently analyze the current problems and weak links and carefully formulate measures and a plan to remedy them. Governments at all levels and all government departments should devote persistent efforts to make significant progress in their basic work so that their decision-making is more scientific and their administration more efficient. Specifically, governments and government departments must have a thorough and deep understanding of their duties and responsibilities, clearly define the duties and responsibilities of cadres in each position and strictly enforce the responsibility system so that they know what their duties are. They must also have a clear understanding of the past scope of their work, its current condition and any conflicts and problems it faces so that they know where they are. A sound digital management mechanism should be developed that uses accurate and reliable data, is based on comprehensive base data and is updated on a timely basis, and its information sources should be shared among departments to ensure accurate figures. More effort needs to be put into political and theoretical study and occupation-related study so that officials fully understand and correctly enforce relevant laws, regulations and policies and are of the highest quality. Additionally, we must dare to propose and conscientiously adhere to high standards and requirements in our work so that all our work is among the best in the country. The great numbers of basic-level public servants constitute an important force in the promotion of all the capital's undertakings. We must further improve the overall quality of basic-level public servants, be concerned about their study and well being and support their good work.

3. Using the Education Campaign to Preserve the Advanced Nature of Party Members to improve the conduct of government officials.

We must carry out the Education Campaign to Preserve the Advanced Nature of Party Members in all administrative organs in accordance with the arrangements of the CPC's Central Committee and Beijing Municipal Committee in order to conscientiously solve the outstanding problems in our ideology, organization, work style and work. This will make the people's government the constant and loyal protector of the people's interests and instill correct ideals and concepts and high moral values in the hearts and minds of the great numbers of basic-level public servants so that they remain close to the people. We will continue to seek truth from facts, carry out our work in strict accordance with objective laws, and subject all our work to the test of actual practice. We will continue to follow the mass line, carefully listen to public opinion, conscientiously accept public oversight, fully arouse the enthusiasm and creativity of the people and make full use of the people of Beijing as the main force in the modernization of the capital. We will continue to be realistic and pragmatic, speak the truth, do solid work, strive for real results, never work on impulse or shirk responsibility and spend more time on survey and study activities and implementation work. We will continue to be thrifty, oppose waste and extravagance and resolutely put a stop to unrealistic and incorrect methods that ignore cost and results. We will continue to run the government diligently and honestly, take full advantage of the administrative inspection departments, accounting departments and other functional departments, resolutely crack down on unhealthy industrial practices and the abuse of power for personal gains, step up the fight for clean government and the elimination of corruption, truly work in the interest of the people and be pragmatic, honest and upright.

Fellow Deputies,

Reform and opening up and the modernization drive in Beijing are in a critical period. We are deeply aware that our tasks are monumental, that our responsibilities are great and that our mission is tremendously important, but the future looks excellent. Let us rally closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary, take Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as our guide, comprehensively put into practice the scientific outlook on development, keep up our confidence, overcome all obstacles, make progress in a pioneering spirit, do good work and strive tirelessly to make the strategic concept of "New Beijing, Great Olympics" a reality.

Foreign Affairs Office

The People' Government of Beijing Municipality

Tel:65192608 Fax:65129604

http://www.bjfao.gov.cn