The Premier gave the report in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, on Wednesday morning. Nearly 3,000 deputies from across China attended the opening meeting and heard the report. Zhu used many facts and figures to review the work of his government in the past five years and briefly discussed suggestions for the work of the government in 2003.

In the group discussion of the Xinjiang delegation, several deputies talked about the work report in their own experience.

Ismail Tiliwaldi, the newly elected governor of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said that Premier Zhu’s report overall reflected the guidelines of the 16th Party Congress and the wills of all nationalities.

It was the first time that Tiliwaldi was elected deputy of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the top legislative body in China. After hearing Zhu’s report on Wednesday morning, he felt inspired by China’s rapid development.

“China’s GDP rose from 7.4 trillion yuan in 1997 to 10.2 trillion yuan in 2002 -- an average annual increase of 7.7 percent, when calculated accordingly. Total fiscal revenue rose from 865.1 billion yuan in 1997 to 1891.4 billion yuan in 2002 -- an average annual increase of 205.3 billion yuan,” Tiliwaldi said, as he quoted many of the figures in the work report.

He recalled the achievements he experienced in the past several years: “The GDP of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with an annual growth rate of 7.8 percent, had reached 105 billion yuan in 2002, up 40 percent over 1997. The fiscal revenue last year was 21.2 billion yuan, while the revenue was only 11 billion yuan in 1997.”

“The fixed assets investment for last year was 81.2 billion yuan, up 81.7 percent over 1997. Personal income in the autonomous region rose 73.5 percent over 1997, with the annual average growth rate of 11.3 percent,” he said.

Tiliwaldi added that Zhu’s report reflected the actual conditions well in China, including the achievements in the past five years, as well as its difficulties and problems.

“If we stick to the guidelines of the 16th Party Congress and the ongoing 10th National People’s Congress, the target of ‘well-rounded affluent society’ will be within reach as planned,” Tiliwaldi said.

Zhang Qingli, the commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Group, talked about his experience in the group discussion. He picked up more than 160 figures from Premier Zhu’s work report when reading it, saying that these statistics were convincing.

He said that the report not only illustrated achievements with large paragraphs, but also presented many problems. “Although the paragraphs used to describe problems were quite short, it shows that the government’s attitude is to respect the basic facts.”

Shohrat Zakir, the mayor of Urumqi, highly praised the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the administrative systems. He described the past five years as the period with most vigorous development, no matter in economic or social life.

“It lays the foundation for the next step of reform, and promises a bright future for China,” he said.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Tang Fuchun, March 7, 2003)