Special report: Reconstruction After Earthquake

    ISLAMABAD, May 31 (Xinhua) — The Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Saturday donated 3,000 tents to the earthquake-affected China.

    The PRCS had donated 50,000 U.S. dollars to the quake victims on May 16.

    PRCS chairman Saeed Ahmed Queshi said the PRCS expressed its sincerest sympathy with the government and people of China, particularly the bereaved families and victims of the earthquake in Sichuan province.

    ”Those are small things, but the help is heart-to-heart,” said Qureshi.

    Luo Zhaohui, Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, appreciated what the PRCS has done to help the quake victims, saying the Pakistani government and people always stand with China in difficult times.

    ”A friend in need is a friend indeed,” Luo added.

    The 3,000 tents will be airlifted directly from Islamabad to Sichuan by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R), also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, shakes hands with Nong Duc Manh, general secretary of Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, in Beijing, capital of China, May 31, 2008.(Xinhua Photo)

    BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) — Under their new partnership, China and Vietnam will step up mutual political trust, work more closely on various fields and deepen friendship between their citizens, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday.

    ”The biggest achievement out of your tour is the establishment of an all-round strategic cooperative partnership, which charts a new path for future China-Vietnam ties,” Wen told Nong Duc Manh, general secretary of Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, in Beijing on Saturday morning.

    China and Vietnam elevated their ties to an all-round strategic cooperative partnership amid the Vietnam’s Communist Party chief’s visit to China.

    The visit was Manh’s fourth since he took the CPV helm in 2001.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (front R), also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Nong Duc Manh (front L), general secretary of Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, in Beijing, capital of China, May 31, 2008.(Xinhua Photo)

    Chinese President Hu Jintao and Manh agreed in their talks on Friday to upgrade bilateral ties from a good neighbor and all-round cooperative relation to a strategic partnership.

    In his hour-long talk with Manh, Wen focused on outlining the economic and trade collaboration between the two countries.

    ”China and Vietnam should speed up mapping out and implementing a five-year economic and trade cooperation program,” he said.

    Wen called for both countries to quickly launch big projects in key fields of industry, infrastructure and energy, and encouraged Chinese businessmen to invest more in Vietnam.

    Sharing Wen’s view, Manh said bilateral trade hit the target of15 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, three years earlier than scheduled.

    ”We are convinced that it will not be difficult for our trade to reach 20 billion U.S. dollars per year in the near future,” Manh said.

    Noting this year marked the 30-year anniversary of China’s reform and opening up, Manh said the Vietnamese side is happy to see the tremendous achievements China has made.

    Wen appreciated Vietnam’s generous support to China’s post-quake relief efforts as Manh brought with him 15 tonnes of relief supplies for survivors of the Sichuan Province earthquake.

    During Manh’s four-day tour, he will also visit the eastern Jiangsu Province.

    BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) — China’s economic growth is likely to stay high but “may moderately slow down” this year, according to the country’s central bank.

    The economy would be affected by a decelerated world economy, weakened by outside demand and domestic disasters such as the snowstorm in January and February and the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in southwestern China, said the People’s Bank of China (PBC) in a report on its website.

    It noted that the country’s central areas, the hardest-hit by the snow storm, need to strengthen infrastructure such as power, transport and telecommunications facilities.

    Post-quake recovery work was also an arduous task, it said.

    Official data showed the freak winter had led to a direct economic loss of 151.6 billion yuan (about 20.8 billion U.S. dollars), while economists estimated the quake loss could reach hundreds of billions of yuan.

    The government would continue to carry out a tight monetary policy and properly control bank credits this year, according to the report.

    Innovative, conservative enterprises as well as rural and service sectors should enjoy preferences in getting loans while lending to smokestack, polluting and overproducing industries must be checked, aid the PBC.

    ”More priority should be given to curbing price rises and preventing inflation,” it said.

    The PBC suggested increasing supplies of grains, edible oil, meat, eggs and vegetables to rein in surging food prices.

    China will see its annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth slow down to 9.8 percent this year and 8 percent in 2009, compared with 11.9 percent last year, according to a forecast by Lehman Brothers.

    Individual housing credit risk, which had triggered a U.S. sub-prime crisis, would be basically under control in China in the short term, the PBC noted.

    It said the default risk caused by inadequate economic ability to repay the housing loans was relatively small in China, while most borrowers had good credit.

    The average proportion of down payment in housing loans was 37.2 percent in the country, while only 3.7 percent of surveyed house buyers were unable to repay the loans in time because of money shortage, according to the PBC report.

    Meanwhile, the country’s commercial banks could face larger risks from borrowers who repay their housing loans in advance due to interest rate hikes and income rises, which would add uncertainties to the banks’ fund use plan, it said.

    Outstanding housing loans to individuals reached 2.7 trillion yuan as of the end of 2007, 36.1 percent up year on year and accounting for nearly 10 percent of all loans in the country, said the PBC.

Special report: Reconstruction After Earthquake

    CHENGDU, May 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has urged civil affairs departments to effectively manage quake relief supplies and timely deliver them to quake victims.

    While visiting civil affairs staff of Sichuan Province on Friday, Hui asked them to faithfully implement the central government’s policies on quake relief and transparently deliver donations from various channels to the victims.

    He visited the lobby of Sichuan Provincial Civil Affairs Department where donations were handled, and listened to a report by the department on donation management and distribution, relocation of homeless people and accommodation of orphans and the childless aged.

    The vice premier praised the hardworking staff and reminded them that quake relief would be a lasting and arduous task.

    ”We should timely deliver relief supplies to ensure people in quake-hit regions can get food and clothes as well as other necessities,” he said, noting that corpses would be properly buried or cremated to give their families psychological consultation.

    He urged the staff to transfer all homeless people to safe residences including tents, prefabricated houses and other makeshift shelters.

    ”We should properly accommodate orphans, the childless aged and the disabled,” he said.

    He also told them to register relief supplies carefully and justly and transparently handle relief supplies.

    ”As to the donations, timely feedback must be given to donators,” he said.

Special report: Reconstruction After Earthquake

    PARIS, May 30 (Xinhua) — Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who just returned from a visit to Canada, on Friday hurried to the Chinese Embassy to express his condolences to the victims of a deadly earthquake that hit China’s southwestern Sichuan province.

    Although China’s three-day national mourning for the quake victims has passed and the funeral hall in the embassy has been withdrawn, Raffarin insisted to go to the embassy to express his strong emotion.

    ”Although I am late, I myself should come here at this crucial time when the Chinese people are suffering disaster to show condolences to the victims and comfort to the survivors,” Raffarin said, both hands clasping together with Chinese ambassador Kong Quan’s.

    China declared a three-day national mourning at home and its missions abroad to memorize the 68,858 people killed and 18,618 missing as of Friday noon in an May 12 earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale in China’s southwestern China. Millions of people have been displaced after the quake.

    ”True love shows in time of need — the French people express their strongest friendship with the Chinese people,” Raffarin wrote in the mourning book at the embassy.

    During the national days of mourning, Raffarin, who was on a business trip in Canada, sent a letter to the Chinese Embassy to France to express his apologies for not attending the mourning ceremonies.

    In the letter, he conveyed sympathy to the Chinese people in the disaster regions and admiration to the Chinese government’s swift and efficient work in disaster relief.

    Raffarin, who also served as first vice-president of France’s ruling party the Union for a Popular Movement, said his party has organized fundraising activities to rally support for the disaster relief in China.

    Kong spoke highly of Raffarin’s moves, noting that he is an old friend of the Chinese people as well as a visionary statesman.

    Good relations between China and France are favorable to both sides, Kong said, expressing his hope that the two countries will work together to clear away obstacles, overcome difficulties and further promote development and expand the strategic partnership of cooperation on the basis of mutual respect.

    YANGON, May 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese medics, who worked in Myanmar for the relief of cyclone victims, ended its two-week mission and left Yangon Saturday morning for home.

    The 50-member medics from China, who arrived on May 18 to render direct medical aid to the country’s cyclone victims, was the fourth foreign medical aid group rendering such direct medical aid to the country’s storm victims after Thailand, India and Laos.

    The Chinese team gave treatment to 4,000 storm victims in Dedaye in Ayeyawaddy delta, Kungyangon and Kawmu in Yangon division.

    A day before its departure, the Chinese team donated four vehicles for medical use and other medical equipment as well as medicines to the Myanmar side Friday.

    Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states — Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on May 2-3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.

    The storm has killed 77,738 people and left 55,917 missing and 19,359 injured, according to official-released death toll.