Ordinary Chinese people expressed satisfaction yesterday with the
government
work report from Premier Zhu Rongji, expressing confidence that
the future will be even brighter.
Retired accountant Song Wansheng took some time out from his busy
domestic schedule to listen to Premier Zhu's report to the 10th
National People's Congress yesterday morning.
Song said he was glad to hear a renewed government pledge to
improve the country's social security system, because "that is what
weighs on the mind of most retired people these days."
"I
just hope that the government will produce more policies regarding
medical insurance and endowment insurance," he said.
Zhang Yazhu, a 49-year-old woman in Tianjin, North China, said she
was inspired by the government work report.
Zhang, who was previously unemployed, established her own company
with a small-credit loan provided in 2001 by the local women's
federation. She is confidently looking forward to her first annual
revenue of over 1 million yuan (US$120,800) this year.
Zhang said Zhu's report promised a bright future for small private
businesses.
In
the country's largest city of Shanghai, reform of the country's
higher education system was on the mind of Hong Bin, a young
lecturer at Fudan University.
Hong said he supported the government's decision to develop several
world class universities in the future.
"But the old rigid mechanism governing personnel and research is
still there," he cautioned.
In
Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Song
Xiaomei, an engineer with US firm Sybase, was looking forward to
the country's future economic development.
"The premier's report boosts our confidence about better business
prospects later this year," said Song.
Diplomats' Responses
The premier's report has also received a positive response from
foreign diplomats who were invited as observers to attend
yesterday's opening session of the top legislature.
"The last five years in China's history were the greatest because
the country has made significant developments and its people's
standard of living has greatly improved," said Dimitar Tzanev,
Bulgarian ambassador to China.
Klaus Ebermann, European Union ambassador to China, agreed. He said
the performance of the Chinese Government and Premier Zhu in
particular have been absolutely extraordinary over the past five
years.
He
added that the Chinese economy has maintained not only stable
growth, but also enormous development even under difficulties of
Asian financial crisis and the sluggish worldwide market.
Borje Ljunggren, Swedish ambassador to China, said China's economic
reforms and its opening-up policy during the past five years were
very impressive.
"I
think Zhu Rongji deserves a high score," he said.
(China Daily March 6, 2003)