While reviewing achievements over the past year, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji also identified economic and social problems still existing in the course of development.
In his government work report to the Fifth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress, Premier Zhu said that "we must soberly aware of these problems that demand urgent solutions."
The main problems he identified are: the growth of farmers' income was slow; income of farmers in some major grain producing areas and in areas seriously hit by natural disasters was reduced; wage payment in arrears was serious in some areas; there were still difficulties in the production and workers' life of some enterprises; and employment pressure mounted.
The irrational industrial structure and deep-seated problems in the economic system remain unresolved. Problems of the ecological environment are still outstanding.
Local protectionism still has continued unabated despite repeated orders to ban it, and the order of the market remains to be straightened up.
Formalism and bureaucracy run rife and deception, extravagance and waste are serious in some localities and with government departments and some leading cadres. Some forms of corruption are relatively serious.
There have been cases of work units taking the rules and regulations in their own hands to appropriate fiscal funds or ear- marked funds for other purposes. It is quite common that laws are not fully observed or enforced. Grave work accidents have occurred from time to time. Social order is far from being desired in some places.
"Some of these problems are left over from the past and some are associated with the shortcomings and mistakes in our work. We must attach great importance to these problems and take effective measures to solve them," he stressed.
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2002)
