Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called for an improvement in the nation's treasury management.

 

Work should be done to make treasury management more "modern, scientific and standardized," Wen said in instructions written for a symposium, which opened Monday, on a national program to modernize the management of the government's financial information.

 

Treasury funds should be managed in a scientific and legal manner, and so reform of China's fiscal system must be deepened, Wen said. He urged that "rules and technical resources be improved."

 

Wen, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also said "fiscal work should continue to serve economic and social development as a whole. Fiscal policies have a key role in macro-control."

 

Official figures showed state revenues exceeded 3 trillion yuan (US$375 billion) last year, an increase of more than 520 billion yuan from the previous year. In a major policy shift, China is investing more heavily in rural development.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2006)