IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Science 'critical' to economic upgrade

Premier Li Keqiang highlighted the "critical role" of technological innovation in driving China's economic transformation during a scientific seminar on July 27.

Only by giving full play to scientific and technological progress can the nation's economy break through existing bottlenecks, he said.

"Chinese people cannot depend only on hard work," he told hundreds of top scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Great Hall of the People.

"We should also depend on intelligence, which comes from science and technology."

The seminar was held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the academic division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The premier said it is normal for Chinese economic growth to slow down, especially considering its size.

Chinese like shopping on US websites

The United States became China's biggest online exporter in 2014, in particular for education, healthcare and food products, according to a report released in Beijing on July 28.

Chinese consumers made 18 times more purchases from the US than from other countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada last year, according to the 2015 China Cross-border Consumption Annual Index Report, jointly produced by Visa Inc and Economic Information Daily.

Although the report does not provide figures for e-commerce trade, it said the popular online sales seasons in the US for Chinese buyers are around Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving Day), Christmas, New Year's Day and other national holidays.

Yu Xueli, general manager of Visa China, said the US has a well-developed IT infrastructure, business environment and logistics network, as well as strict regulations to prohibit the sale of counterfeit goods, making it attractive to Chinese buyers.

Sudoku enthusiasts set world record

Two hundred young sudoku lovers set a Guinness World Record by successfully solving the largest multi-sudoku puzzle in the world.

"It is the first successful attempt at creating and solving such a large multi-sudoku puzzle," Cheng Dong, an authenticator from the Guinness World Records, said on July 25.

The puzzle consisted of 200 standard Sudoku grids chained diagonally, with the overlapping areas complying with the rules of adjacent grids. It was created specifically for the event by members of the Beijing Sudoku Association.

Contestants who recently took part in the two-day World Sudoku Junior Championship and young volunteers in Beijing solved randomly assigned puzzles, being careful not to make any mistakes in filling in the numbers, from 1 to 9, on the individual 9-square-by-9-square puzzles.

Call for more economic cooperation with Ghana

Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Sun Baohong said her country is ready to deepen economic cooperation with Ghana to create more mutual benefits. She made the statement during a speech at the final round of the 2015 Enactus (previously the Students In Free Enterprise) Ghana national competitions.

"China has become an important destination of tourism, overseas study and business for Ghanaian people," she said.

Ghana and China established diplomatic ties 55 years ago, and bilateral trade hit $5.6 billion last year, with Ghana's exports to China reaching $1.4 billion.

Sun said the Chinese approach to industrial development can help Ghana with its economic transformation toward industrialization and increased exports, and called for more cooperation in manufacturing between the two nations.

Govt seeks help in reducing soil loss

China will encourage the public, businesses and non-governmental organizations to help prevent soil depletion, or desertification, and reclaim land that has been damaged.

Desertification typically results from climate change or human activities such as overgrazing or poor agricultural practices.

The goal is to reclaim 1 million hectares by 2020 and to slow the process of desertification across the country.

China is facing severe soil depletion. Over the past 50 years, 1.73 million square kilometers of soil has been lost to desertification, accounting for 18 percent of the country's total land area and directly affecting one-third of all residents - about 400 million people, Vice-Premier Wang Yang said on July 27.

The central government has paid close attention to the problem and has mounted comprehensive efforts to fight soil loss and poverty together, a unique approach globally, and it has already made significant progress, Wang said.

In the past five years, governments at various levels have treated more than 10 million hectares of desertified land through replanting efforts, and slowed land loss, Wang said.

Central bank steps up money laundering fight

China's central bank and other government agencies have vowed to increase efforts to combat money laundering, following recent high-profile cases.

A statement on the People's Bank of China website on July 27 said that an inter-ministerial meeting led by the bank to discuss combating illegal money transfers was held in Beijing on July 24.

Guo Qingping, a vice-governor of the bank, delivered a report on China's anti-money-laundering efforts and outlined further plans.

To improve the effectiveness of such work, delegates attending the meeting from more than 20 departments, including the Ministry of Public Security and the Supreme People's Court, agreed to strengthen inter-ministerial coordination.

They also agreed to focus on addressing the "institutional roots" of the problem and to step up efforts in the non-financial sector.

They decided to set up a statistics system to combat money laundering and to increase surveillance on such crimes being committed through the Internet.

Oil giants sued over Bohai spill

A landmark lawsuit has been filed against two oil giants in a maritime court over the oil spill in 2011 that polluted a huge area of Bohai Bay in Northeast China.

The suit, filed against ConocoPhillips and China National Offshore Oil Corp, is the first public interest litigation brought by a nonprofit organization over marine environmental pollution to be accepted by a court.

Such a move was not possible until a new environmental protection law took effect on Jan 1.

The China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation said on July 26 it had been told by the maritime court in Qingdao, Shandong province, that the suit had been filed.

The law allows any environmental organization registered with a civil affairs bureau at city level or above and that has been operating for at least five years to bring public interest litigation.

Beidou moves closer to global coverage

With the launch of two navigation satellites on July 25, China made another solid step toward building its own positioning system with global coverage, a leading scientist said on July 26.

Scientists put two satellites for the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, a domestic alternative to the United States-operated GPS, into orbit on July 25 at midnight.

Xie Jun, chief engineer of the Beidou project, said the two satellites are designed to be trailblazers as the Beidou system expands its coverage globally.

Named after the Chinese term for the Big Dipper constellation, the Beidou project was launched in 1994, some 20 years after the inception of GPS. The first Beidou satellite was launched in 2000.

By 2012, a regional network had taken shape, and the Beidou system was providing positioning, navigation, timing and short-messaging services in China and several other Asian countries.

Draft law focuses on first aid in capital

Drivers of private cars in Beijing will face penalties if they do not pull aside to make a path for ambulances, the city's top legislature said in a draft regulation dealing with emergency services.

The draft, which was submitted to the Standing Committee of the Beijing People's Congress for discussion, also covers emergency first aid for injured people before professional help arrives.

It is the first time that proposals for first aid education were included in legislation.

Penalties for drivers who do not make way for ambulances were not outlined in the draft, but were to include fines.

The draft aims to streamline the capital's emergency medical treatment system, which has some bottlenecks, and provide more information to the public about emergencies, Liu Zhengang, director of the Beijing Legal Affairs Office, said on July 24.

Private financing sought for tourism

Private investors are being invited to help build 100 tourism projects with an estimated investment of about 25 billion yuan ($4 billion; 3.6 billion euros) in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in the next five years.

The China National Tourism Administration and Xinjiang tourism authority have released a list of about 100 proposed tourism projects that private investors are being invited to fund, build and operate.

The list includes the Silk Road tourism hub, cross-border tourism and a medical tourism service.

In the past five years, more than 5 billion yuan from governments has been invested in 200 projects that have also attracted more than 20 billion yuan from tourism companies. The projects have significantly improved the tourism infrastructure and industry level in Xinjiang.

Wu Wenxue, deputy director of the China National Tourism Administration, said the market, instead of the government, should be the driving force for the tourism industry in Xinjiang.

Free app to aid overseas Chinese

Chinese who are out of the country now have easy access to emergency services and can keep themselves updated with Overseas Chinese Call, a mobile app released by the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.

"Our overriding goal is to build a platform that better connects with Chinese working and living abroad and to serve them to the best of our ability," federation President Lin Jun said at the launch ceremony on July 28.

Registered app users can get emergency messages from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and make inquiries or report their concerns directly to consulates.

Step-by-step guidelines are provided on common problems, such as what to do if your passport is lost or stolen, and whom Chinese government officials should contact in the country being visited if relatives in China lose touch with the user.

Beijing reassures Olympics on snowfall

As the selection of the 2022 Winter Olympics' host city approached, Beijing eased concerns about transportation as well as the lack of natural snowfall at its proposed venues, promising successful Games.

After Beijing proposed hosting the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in three areas, including in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, some media raised concerns about the potential inconvenience of the commute. However, the Beijing bid committee assured Olympics officials that a high-speed railway would address the problem.

"The proposed high-speed railway will not only serve as a transportation tool during the Games but also a mobile workplace for all accredited media, with necessary equipment and services on board," said Wang Hui, deputy secretary-general and spokeswoman for the Beijing 2022 bid committee, on July 28. Wang made her comments in Kuala Lumpur, where the International Olympic Committee is meeting.

Demand for English fluency on rise at work

The use of English is expanding in workplaces across China.

According to the Chinese recruiting website 51job.com, multinational companies still top the workplaces at which English is needed. Nearly 79 percent of employees who work for such companies said they use English on the job.

But the recruiter also found growing use of English in unexpected places. More than 47 percent of employees at state-owned enterprises, for example, said they use English at work.

The online survey, which polled 2,034 workers, also found that more job seekers would like to apply for positions requiring English-language skills at work. This was especially true for those with bachelor's and master's degrees.

Nearly 62 percent of respondents said they would like to choose jobs that need English skills. However, language skills do not necessarily guarantee the promotions and high salaries they once did.

Pollution survey shows mixed results

An environmental protection poll found mixed results, with more than half of those surveyed saying that urban environmental pollution is severe, even as they expressed increased satisfaction with the government's performance in dealing with such issues.

The survey, released on July 27 by the Center for Public Opinion Research at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, sought to learn about attitudes and behaviors toward environmental protection and understand how residents evaluate the government's performance in this area.

It polled 3,500 residents from 35 major cities through a computerized telephone interview.

According to the survey, nearly 54 percent said urban environmental pollution is severe, an increase of 2.3 percentage points from a similar survey conducted in 2013. Nearly 64 percent said current ecological destruction is severe or very severe.

Public satisfaction with the government's performance in environmental protection reached 60 percent, however, an increase of more than 10 percentage points from 2013.

Buried utility lines to get upgrade

China will rebuild its underground utilities, including water and power supplies and heating systems, to expand urban carrying capacities and introduce more investment to boost growth.

Experts said they estimate the total investment needed for the rebuilding could reach 400 billion yuan ($64.4 billion) to 500 billion yuan.

Tang Min, former Asian Development Bank chief economist, said the initiative will become a major support to economic growth and add incentives to related industries such as cement, steel and other construction materials manufacturing during the continued sluggishness of the realty sector.

(China Daily European Weekly 07/31/2015 page2)