Extracts.
Sunday, December 17, 2000, updated at 11:41(GMT+8)
Chinese Province to Close Polluting Enterprises
East China's Anhui Province will, on January 1, close
enterprises that fail to reach the national effluent
standards during an upcoming provincial inspection of
industrial enterprises.
"Reaching the national effluent standard is the
lifeline for enterprises," Vice Governor of Anhui
Huang Yuezhong said.
According to Huang, by the end of this November, the
total amount of industrial pollutants in Anhui was
the same as that of 1995, and 6,110 of the 6,275
industrial enterprises due to reach the effluent
standard this year have so far achieved the goal.
Huang also indicated that much remains to be done
since there are still some enterprises lagging behind
in curbing pollution.
The inspection will be conducted on December 20-28.
****
Sunday, December 17, 2000, updated at 10:39(GMT+8)
Palestinian, Israeli Officials Meet on Reviving Peace
Talks
Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials met late
Saturday as part of the underway contacts between the
two sides to revive the Palestinian-Israeli talks,
Israel radio reported.
The meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo
Ben-Ami and caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak's
senior advisor Gilad Sher on the one side, and chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and chief of the
Palestinian Preventive Security in Gaza Strip Col.
Mohammad Dahlan on the other, was held at an
undisclosed location in Israel.
Ben-Ami met late Thursday night with Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat at the Erez checkpoint between
Gaza and Israel and discussed ways of returning to
the negotiating table.
During their four-hour talks, Arafat hoped a final
status agreement can be reached before U.S. President
Bill Clinton leaves office in January next year.
Also on Saturday, Erekat said that the Palestinian
side wants to hold a summit with Israel and the
United States to reach an accord on the final status
of the Palestinian territories.
Palestinian and Israeli officials have resumed
contacts since last week which had stopped by the
ongoing bloody clashes between Palestinian protesters
and Israeli forces that broke out on September 28.
****
Saturday, December 16, 2000, updated at 22:47(GMT+8)
Government Solicits Public Opinion on Five-Year Plan
The State Development Planning Commission (SDPC)
Saturday, December 16, invited representatives from
all walks of life across the country to voice their
suggestions and advice on the drafting of the
2001-2005 Five-Year Plan.
Participants include academicians, entrepreneurs,
professors, servicemen, farmers, and officials at
grassroots levels, representing more than 4,000
writers of suggestion letters, of whom the oldest is
86 and the youngest only 10.
The discussions focused on the manufacturing sector,
diversified ownership, marine development strategy,
people's lives, agriculture and the rural economy,
scientific and technological innovations, the
strategy to develop western China, and herbal
medicines.
SDPC Minister Zeng Peiyan and other officials
attended the meeting. "Public involvement and
transparency in the process of codifying the
Five-Year plan is not only conducive to scientific
and democratic decision-making, but also to the
implementation of the plan," Zeng said.
In October, the SDPC launched a nationwide campaign
to solicit public opinions on the five-year plan,
which was echoed enthusiastically.
A special group was set up to read the incoming
letters. Some suggestions and advice of insight were
relayed to the plan drafting panel for reference.
The activity will continue through next spring when
the National People's Congress convenes and examines
the plan, Zeng said.
****
World Needs 'Common Win' Economic Globalization The rapid development of
the revolution of information technology has brought about a tremendous new
leap of social productive forces, as well as an historic opportunity for
re-depicting the global economy.
In the 1990s, human beings have initiated a new industrial revolution
characterized by the revolution of information technology and heralded the
age for the accelerated development of economic globalization.
There is so far not a universally acknowledged accurate concept about
economic globalization. Generally speaking, it refers to the objective
trend featuring the transnational flow and allocation of production factors
emerged along with the development of social productive forces. The mature
market economy needs constantly expanding domestic and international
markets, this exactly constitutes an objective basis for the emergence of
the phenomenon of economic globalization.
Under the circumstance wherein the old international economic order
dominated by developed Western countries has not been fundamentally
changed, the direct cause of economic globalization, which has emerged
against such a background, is the nature of unlimited added value and
expansion of capital, therefore, it carries the nature of capitalism,
however, economic globalization, characterized mainly by the market
economy, is not tantamount to capitalism, because "the market economy is
not tantamount to capitalism".
Actively participating in the process of economic globalization is not
equal to accepting "Westernization" and entering a "trap". Economic
globalization does not mean the "victory of capitalism", but rather it
implies the deepening of the interrelationship and interdependence of the
whole world.
Economic globalization involves both gains and losses and implies the
coexistence of opportunities and challenges. Generally speaking, it brings
both gains and losses, with gains outdoing losses, to the overwhelming
majority of countries in the world. The benefits gained by developed
nations are much greater than those of the developing countries, the least
developed countries have not as yet gained any benefit from economic
globalization, the developing countries should pursue the good and avoid
the harm, seize the opportunity to promote development.
Economic globalization has become an irreversible objective trend and an
unavoidable reality. Nowadays, no country isolated from the outside world
can get development. Humanity needs to transcend the restraint imposed by
different regions, cultures and concepts of value and allow the market, not
ideology, to guide the development of the world economy and trade. To
extricate themselves from poverty and accelerate economic development, the
developing countries need to actively participate in the process of
economic globalization, and pursue benefits and avoid detriments.
Otherwise, they would face the danger of "marginalization".
Overall, economic globalization has provided developing countries with
unprecedented development opportunities and brought conditions and chances
for them to attract foreign capital and learn from advanced technology and
management expertise; brought to them favorable external environment and
conditions to make investment abroad; it has boosted the development of
economic and technological development zones, bonded areas and free trade
zones; promoted the readjustment and optimization of the industrial
structure and the upgrading of the product mix; spurred the growth of
developing countries' transnational corporations and the enhancement of
their international competitiveness; and it has given an impetus to the
development of developing countries' foreign trade.
In other words, if the countries can firmly grasp the opportunity for the
revolution of information technology, it would be possible for them to
combine industrialization and informationization and bring about an
historic leap in social productive forces and social progress.
However, economic globalization has also exerted negative impact and
influence on the developing countries. It has aggravated the imbalance of
the world economic development, thus widening the gap of wealth between the
developed and developing countries, and intensified the polarization
between the rich and the poor within a developed or a developing country.
According to statistics from the United Nations, there were 36 least
developed countries 10 years ago, the figure rose to 42 five years ago and
to 48 at present. Viewed from this angle, the process of economic
globalization actually is a process of the continual concentration of
wealth.
In this process, world development has become increasingly unbalanced; the
per-capita GNP gap between the developed nations and developing countries
has expanded from 43-fold in 1983 to over 60-fold at present; The developed
countries, whose population accounts for only one-sixth of the world total,
monopolize nearly 80 percent of global income.
The information technological gap between the developed and the developing
countries, i.e., the "digital gulf", cannot but has aroused great
attention. It is thus clear that the gain and loss occurred to the
developing countries and the developed nations in the process of economic
globalization have become an inequality of serious imbalance. On the one
hand, economic globalization has made developed nations become increasingly
wealthy; on the other hand, it has caused the least developed countries to
face the danger of "marginalization", poor people there find it harder to
eke out a living. In the past decade, the proportion of the come of the
world's impoverished people to the global total has dropped from the
original 2.3 percent to 1.4 percent.
Economic globalization has increased pressure and impact on the national
industries of developing countries. For historical reasons, the developing
countries' economic structure is fragile, their capital is scarce,
technology backward and market growth immature. They are vulnerable to
impact in the process of being merged into economic globalization, so they
not only need private investment and technological aid from the developed
nations, but all the more need the assistance of official capital.
In fact, the developed nations' official capital flowing into developing
countries in the past 10 years has notably decreased. Many developed
countries have failed to earnestly undertake their responsibilities,
falling far short of fulfilling the internationally acknowledged target for
aiding the developing countries.
The World Bank report "1999 Global Development Fund" shows that the amount
of developed nations' official capital flowing into developing countries
has fallen from approximately US$60 billion in 1990 to less than US$45
billion at present.
Financial globalization under the condition of economic globalization has,
without doubt, accelerated the flow of international capital, it, however,
has also increased the financial risk of the developing countries. Under
the circumstance wherein the financial system is not perfect and financial
control capability is not strong, if the developing countries blindly open
their domestic financial market, the negative influence of financial
globalization will stand out. The best illustration of this is the eruption
of the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
The negative influences brought about by the tide of economic globalization
obviously is not the development target of humanity. The developed nations
should bear certain responsibility for the emergence of these consequences.
In the world economic arena, the fact that the developed nations are both
the participants in the play and the makers of regulations on the play
determines that in the solutions of many international trade problems and
the formulation of trade regulations, the voice of the poor developing
countries is weak.
The 2000 UN Report on Human Development points out that the global economic
decision was made in the world where economic strengths are extremely
unequal. These words have brought out the "true meaning" with one remark.
In the process of economic globalization, the few rich developed nations
and the poor and backward developing countries are far apart in strength,
but they are confronted with the same competitive rules, this has
undoubtedly landed the developing countries in an unequal and passive
position at the very beginning of participating in this process.
There is no need for reticence that in the process of economic
globalization, the developing countries have contacted the world's advanced
technologies and management methods, but this is obtained at the high price
of their cheap labor and natural resources. Three years ago, the total
annual wages of 22,000 Asian workers were not as much as the advertising
fee for a noted public figure paid by the Nike Company of the United
States. This situation has not as yet seen much improvement. At present, if
this unfair and irrational old international order is not broken, the
developed nations will continue to hold sway of the process of economic
globalization, the developing countries will continue to act a supporting
role.
The developed nations and the developing countries are living under the
same blue sky, when one develops, one should also allow others to develop
as well, so that every one can become the beneficiaries of economic
globalization. The minority rich countries should not build up their
affluence on the poverty of the majority poor countries. Otherwise, there
will not be a world of peace, stability and prosperity to speak of.
The accelerated development of economic globalization indicates that
mankind has entered a new era with peace and development as the main theme.
But this development should not be gained at the expense of the developing
countries' economic security and economic sovereignty, nor should it entail
the consequence of creating more poverty and aggravating polarization
featuring a widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Just as President Jiang Zemin has pointed out: We need an economic
globalization of "common win" for various countries around the world; need
an economic globalization featuring the equality among various countries of
the world; and an economic globalization allowing the coexistence of all
countries in the world. Only when a fair and reasonable international new
economic order is established through the concerted effort of human beings,
can they jointly triumph over the challenges emerged in the process of
development and can they enjoy a brighter future.
****
China Capable of Developing Cars Independently
First All China-designed Car Born
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amid the soul-stirring National Anthem of China, a new brand "Zhonghua"
(China) car rolled off the production line from the Shenyang Gold-Cup
Auto-Making Company in northeast China's Liaoning Province Saturday,
December 16.
It is the first car that China possesses full intellectual property rights,
declared by Hong Xing, vice president of the Shanghai-based Brilliance
China Automotive Holding Ltd., the holding company of the Gold-Cup.
The body, the engine and other key parts of the new sedan, which reaches
the same technical standards of those models in the European market, such
as Toyota Cammy or Volkswagon Passat B5, were all developed by China to
greet the competition emerging from its expected entry into the World Trade
Organization.
"Mastering full intellectual property rights, China may decide by itself on
car designing and the future development strategy of the domestic
automobile industry in tone with the market demand," said Hong Xing.
Some 13 car plants under control of eight largest car groups in China now
are either funded by foreign automobile giants or operating under the
production licenses of foreign car styles, according to Yang Rong, chairman
of the Brilliance Group.
Most of their car productions followed the design of foreign cars of 1980s,
Yang said, and China could hardly make change on the key technical
indicators as the intellectual property rights belong to the foreign side.
There is no doubt that foreign investment and technologies have helped to
promote China's auto industry. However, not possessing the intellectual
property rights more or less confined the development of China's national
industry, according to Chinese experts.
To own a house and a car is the object pursued by many Chinese people in
recent years.
Statistics show that 4.2 percent of urban households in China have had
their own cars, and it is estimated that individuals will buy over 600,000
cars by the end of the year.
Eight top car manufacturers in China have reported a total output of
450,000 cars in the first nine months this year.
The "Zhonghua" car will be available in the market in July next year,
pricing at around 150,000 to 200,000 yuan (some US$20,000), and its annual
output will reach 100,000.
The Brilliance Group spent some US$500 million and over three years to
develop the "Zhonghua" sedan, which is designed to meet the demand of
medium and high-grade cars in the domestic market.
The Brilliance Group will carry out experiments on the car in the next few
months in freezing, muggy and desert regions to guarantee its functions.
Compared with the century-long history of the world's automobile industry,
China's auto-industry just debuted in the mid-1950s, when the first
automobile plant was set up in Changchun city, northeast China's Jilin
Province.
The first domestic "Jiefang" (liberation) truck was produced in 1956, and
nine years later, China brought out its first car of "Red Flag", whose
engine, along with other key components, are made by foreign equipment and
technologies.
With efforts of generations of Chinese people, China now has full capacity
to produce all types of auto vehicles, but the medium and high-grade cars
market is still under the dominance of foreign investors.
"We hope the birth of 'Zhonghua' may help China to develop its national car
industry," said Hong, but "we will continue to follow the international
trend and always learn from our adversaries to shorten the technological
gap between China and the developed countries in the sector."
****
WTO Chief Says Would Like to Oversee Round Launch World Trade Organization
Director-General Mike Moore said on Friday in Geneva he would like to see a
new global round of liberalization talks launched during his term in
office, which ends in August 2002.
But Moore told a year-end news conference he recognized that agreement on a
round among the WTO's currently 140 members was still a long way off
although many governments were showing "increasing flexibility" on the
issue.
"I'd like to do that (oversee the round launching)," declared the former
New Zealand prime minister, who is serving a three-year term and will be
succeeded by Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi.
"I do believe we can do most for most people around the world inside a
round....It would bring benefits to our member countries and to the global
economy as a whole," he said.
But all members of the WTO had "to see enough space and feel enough
comfort" before they would be ready to sign up for a major negotiating
effort that diplomats say could be expected to last at least three and
probably more years.
Developing countries, who blocked efforts at a WTO ministerial meeting in
Seattle last December to agree on a launch early this year, are still
bitter over failure of the richer powers to relax some accords reached in
the last round.
That effort, named after Uruguay which hosted the ministerial meeting of
the old GATT trade body which launched it, lasted from 1986 to the end of
1993.
Over the past year, poorer countries who are finding it impossible to
implement some of the agreements reached then in many areas including
agriculture, health rules, subsidies and rules of origin, have been
negotiating to achieve some leeway.
But a document summing up those talks issued on Friday left little doubt
that scant movement had been shown by big powers like the United States and
the European Union who want to stick to the original time-frames for
implementation.
India's ambassador Srinavasan Narayanan told the WTO's ruling General
Council discussing the problem on Thursday that the year of discussions had
achieved "even less than I had expected," diplomats present said.
If no extension to the accords affecting emerging economies and the world's
poorer states is agreed, they could eventually face challenge before the
WTO's Dispute Settlement Body + and possible sanctions + for failing to
observe trading rules.
But Moore said on Friday the agreement to at least continue discussions on
implementation next year marked "modest progress."
"These are enormously difficult issues for all involved. It is very
difficult for capitals to move," he declared.
The WTO chief indicated he hoped that there could be a shift during 2001 to
make possible agreement on a round at the WTO's next ministerial meeting,
to be held before the end of the year.
But ambassadors on Friday postponed to the New Year a decision on which of
two likely candidate countries would host the gathering. The Gulf state of
Qatar offered its capital Doha in Seattle, but recently Chile has shown
interest.
For the previous three ministerial, there was only one candidate for host.
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