China expects 8% growth in 2006

China targets an 8 percent economic growth this year and will take measures to keep the development "fast" and "steady", Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday.

The projected growth rate is 1.9 percentage points lower than the actual growth in 2005, but is higher than the targeted annual growth of 7.5 percent for the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).

China to see 7.5% annual growth in next 5 years

Premier Wen Jiabao has proposed an annual growth rate of 7.5 percent for the national economy during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).

This indicates a projected target of doubling the per capita GDP of 2000 by the year 2010.

China to cut energy consumption by 4% in 2006

China will strive to chop down its energy consumption rate by 4 percent this year, a new key index to guide economic and social development, Premier Wen Jiabao announced Sunday.

"Energy consumption per unit of GDP should fall by about 4 percent in 2006," said Wen while delivering a report on government work at the opening meeting of the Fourth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature.

China hikes sci-tech input by 19.2%, jump-starting drive for "innovative country"

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday that the central government will allocate 71.6 billion yuan this year for investment in science and technology, representing an increase of 19.2 percent year-on-year.

"China has entered a stage in its history where it must increase its reliance on scientific and technological advances and innovation to drive social and economic development," Premier Wen told the opening ceremony of the Fourth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress.

China to spend 14% more in building "new countryside"

The Chinese government will spend 339.7 billion yuan (42 billion U.S. dollars) in agriculture, rural areas and farmers this year, which is 42.2 billion yuan, or 14.18 percent, more than last year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday.

The target, along with plans to shift the government's priority in infrastructure investment to the countryside, to completely rescind agricultural tax and to increase input in rural education and medical care, signifies the drive to "build a socialist new countryside" will unravel in all fronts this year, observers say.

China pledges elimination of rural compulsory education charges in 2 years

In what was called "a milestone event" in China's educational history, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday pledged that the government would eliminate all charges on rural students receiving a nine-year compulsory education before the end of 2007.

The new policy, apparently resulting from the central leadership's latest call for building a "new socialist countryside," will benefit some 160 million school-age children in the vast rural region, who account for nearly 80 percent of the country's primary and junior middle school students.

Obstructers of cross-Straits relations doomed to fail

Anybody who acts against people's wishes for peaceful and stable relations across the Taiwan Straits is bound to meet failure, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday.

"Everyone wants cross-Straits relations to be peaceful and stable and develop to the mutual benefit of both sides," said Premier Wen in his government work report delivered at the annual session of the Tenth National People's Congress.