Jiang Chunyun, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee stressed on the Symposium on Population and Development Issues in Western Development opened Saturday that economy development and population controlling should be given first priority to in implementing western developing strategy to realize the harmonizing development of population, resources, environment and economy.

Jiang pointed out that western developing strategy is the guarantee of Chinese sustained fast healthy economic development and a requisite of realizing the third step strategic goal on modernization construction. In May, China Central Committee and State Council jointly issued a decision on boosting population and family planning work and stabilizing low bearing level which bought the population problem into the general programming of western development. This guideline and principle should be adopted to dispose of the relationship between population and development.

According to Jiang, with the limit of economic and social development level and natural environment, population average growth rate is a little higher while the quality is a bit lower. This kind of population status can no match the social economic development. Optimizing industrial structure, pressing the environmental deterioration and improving people's living standard all rely on depressing the population growth rate and increasing the population quality.

As an authority organ, the National People's Congress (NPC) should play a greater role on this issue, he added.

(People's Daily 11/5/2000)