Netizens say gov´t report faces problems squarely

Source: Xinhua | 03-06-2008 21:29

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- "It is a report facing problems squarely," a netizen wrote on the China Central Television (CCTV) website on Thursday.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivers a  government work report during the opening  meeting of the First Session of the 11th  National People's Congress (NPC) at the  Great Hall of the People in Beijing,  capital of China, March 5, 2008. (Xinhua File Photo)

Premier Wen Jiabao's government work report was delivered at the First Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC). Now it is receiving comments from more than 200 million Chinese netizens.

Thousands of messages were posted on forums of portal websites soon after the report was issued.

The CCTV website held an online survey called "voting when watching TV". It found that about 48 percent of netizens considered that the most significant progress of the government in the last five years was that the agricultural tax was rescinded, ending the centuries-old practice of farmers paying taxes.

The second was that free compulsory education was made available to rural students in an all round manner, while the third was that living standards improved markedly. These two aspects of improvement got 25 percent and 11 percent of the votes, respectively.

About 2 percent of the votes each went to two other aspects. One was the progress in efforts to make China more innovative. The other was the major progress made in the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the financial system, fiscal and taxation systems, the system of foreign trade and economic cooperation, and the administrative system.

The votes were supported by numerous messages. Netizens regarded the progress on the people's livelihood in the report as the most encouraging achievement. They also believed that the government clearly knew the problems and challenges ahead.

"The report said that the government completely rescinded the agricultural tax, livestock tax and tax on special agricultural products throughout China, reducing the burden on farmers by 133.5billion yuan (about 18.8 billion U.S. dollars) a year. It is a shining landmark in Chinese history," said a netizen at the CCTV website, who went by the name of Little Revolutionary. "Many farmers appreciated this greatly."

"The report faced a lot of problems about people's livelihood," said a netizen named Bluecollar on Xinhuanet. "The report posts the achievements of the past five years; more importantly, it calmly judges the current situation," Bluecollar said.

Unshaken determination to solve problems, like education, medical insurance, domestic prices, and corruption, can be seen in the report, Netizen Shuizhihan wrote in his blog.

(by Xinhua writers Ji Shaoting, Li Huaiyan and Wang Pan)

Editor:Du Xiaodan