BEIJING - "We
are clearly aware that there are still some outstanding
difficulties and problems in China's economic and social
life," said Premier Zhu Rongji, when he delivered the
Report on the Work of the Government at the opening of
the First Session of the 10th National People's
Congress on Wednesday.
Zhu's warning words were
especially focused on the plight of China's
less-developed and economically lagging regions. China's
rise in unemployment and increasing number of destitute
rural and urban Chinese and the continued inequities in
the distribution of income were serious issues the
country must resolve, he said. Slow growth in the income
of farmers and some urban residents was also a major
issue of concern for the premier, who is expected to
step down from his post on March 18 at the conclusion of
the Congress.
In more economics-focused areas,
Zhu cited insufficient domestic effective demand and
inability of the supply structure to respond to changes
in market demand as areas in need of government
amelioration. Zhu added that an arduous task lay ahead
in reforming China's myriad state-owned enterprises
(SOEs).
He also called attention to the need to
continue to rectify and standardize the order of the
market economy and reduce major industrial accidents,
while improving the poor public security in some areas
of the country.
Zhu also called for a fixing of
the extensive environmental damage suffered by numerous
areas of the country.
Another crucial issue
in Zhu's report centered more around the behavior
of officials rather than policy. Zhu said the
government's continued isolation from the people and
perpetration of formalism, bureaucracy, falsification,
extravagance and waste among some government officials,
and certain types of corruption remaining conspicuous
were all serious problems that the government must work
to eliminate if it wanted to preserve growth and social
stability.
The report says that some of these
problems are the legacy of the past; others are hardly
avoidable in the course of institutional transition and
structural readjustment; and still others are caused by
shortcomings and inadequacies in the present government.
