IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Safety

Food standard put on menu

China will introduce a new catering standard from June next year with consumer health as the primary focus, according to the Beijing Health Inspection Institute. The standard will cover restaurants, bakeries, and shops selling snacks, drinks and desserts, canteens, and work-place kitchens across the country.

Food hygiene will be under the spotlight, especially bacteria contamination, experts said. The standards will focus on steps to better prevent and control food-borne diseases, especially those related to catering, an official with the institute said. Once implemented it will boost supervision over the catering sector, the institute said.

Seafood products such as salmon sashimi, for instance, will have clearly defined microbe limits.

Pharmaceuticals

Blacklist to improve drug safety

A regulation on the management of a drug safety blacklist took effect on Oct 1, according to the State Food and Drug Administration.

The new regulation stipulates that those who produce drugs illegally, who seriously violate regulations on drugs and medical devices and who are subject to administrative punishment will be blacklisted and named on an official government website, the administration said.

Establishing the blacklist strengthens safety supervision and the administration of drugs and medical devices, promotes the construction of a credit system and improves the industry's entry and exit mechanism, said a statement issued by the administration.

Health

Quarantine checks intensified

Authorities in China on Sept 29 ordered a three-month intensified quarantine period to prevent the entry of a new type of corona virus.

In a statement on its website, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine called for body temperature monitoring and other medical inspections for travelers from Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to be increased after the World Health Organization said the new virus had left a Qatari citizen critically ill in London.

The administration also requires travelers from the three countries to inform China's entry-exit inspection and quarantine institutions if they develop acute respiratory symptoms such as a fever, cough or shortness of breath.

Environment

More special bricks in capital

The capital plans to lay more water-absorbing bricks in urban areas to conserve rainwater.

Compared with roads paved with cement, rainwater is absorbed more easily through these bricks, said Wang Hao, an academic with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

According to the Beijing Water Authority, 150,000 square meters of water-absorbing bricks will be laid this year. Around 1 million square meters have already been laid in the city.

Economy

GDP forecast lowered

The Asian Development Bank cut most of its 2012 and 2013 growth estimates for developing Asia on Oct 3 as a slump in global demand weighs on the region's powerhouses China and India and on its other export-dependent economies.

The ADB cut its GDP growth estimate for China by nearly 1 percentage point to 7.7 percent from the previous 8.5 percent, warning that risks to the world's second-largest economy were likely to intensify in the short term, given bleak global demand and the uncertain outlook for its largest trading partners.

But it said China would still be able to avoid a hard economic landing, given that policymakers in Beijing have considerable scope for further stimulus measures. "The global slump in demand, especially from Europe, will remain a serious drag on growth in the near term," ADB Chief Economist Changyong Rhee said in a news release as the Manila-based bank released an update of its regional outlook.

Transport

Arrests after fatal ferry crash

Seven crew members from two vessels have been arrested as the death toll from a ferry collision near Lamma Island in Hong Kong reached 38 on Oct 2.

Four survivors remained in critical condition and dozens were receiving treatment for injuries and trauma.

It is the worst accident since the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. An independent committee of inquiry will be set up to look into the cause.

The accident occurred when a ferry, owned by Assets Holdings Ltd, collided with a catamaran, owned by the Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry Holdings Ltd, just off the Lamma Island. A spokesman for Assets Holdings Ltd said the ferry was carrying 124 passengers, 121 of them were members of their staff.

China Daily

(China Daily 10/05/2012 page2)