Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!

It is a great pleasure for me to meet friends from domestic and international media organizations here again. I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you what China has done to facilitate the release of public information, and the new progress it has made in its news release work and the development of the spokesperson system over the past year. I'd also be glad to take your questions. Let me begin with some brief opening remarks so that you can have more time to ask questions. I hope they can offer some newsworthy information as well.

1.China made great strides in news release work and spokesperson system in 2006.

First, the government's news release and spokesperson system was further improved. To date, 74 departments under the State Council have put in place a news release and spokesperson system, with 91 spokespersons appointed. China's 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have all introduced this system, engaging 52 spokespersons. The State Council Information Office has publicized the name list of spokespersons of State Council departments and the telephone numbers of their offices, which you may find in the handouts at this conference, for the third time. However, this is the first time for us to provide you with a list of the spokespersons of the governments of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and the telephone numbers of their offices. Second, relevant central organizations of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made a major breakthrough in establishing and improving the news release and spokesperson system. We have, for the first time, publicized the names of their spokespersons and the telephone numbers of their media departments at this conference. To date, seven CPC central organs¡ªthe Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, the Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee and the Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee¡ªhave adopted this system, employing 8 spokespersons.

In addition, the National People's Congress (NPC), the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the All-China Women's Federation have appointed spokespersons under the news release and spokesperson system.

2.Spokespersons of various regions and departments won recognition from the media and the general public as they made every effort to offer high-quality services for media organizations by adopting different kinds of news release.

Spokespersons of Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Health, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and the Shanghai Municipal Government, hold press conferences regularly at a fixed time and venue to release news and information for Chinese and overseas media. Their achievements are particularly remarkable.

Let me take this opportunity to disclose some initial statistics. Since the beginning of 2006, the State Council Information Office has held 58 press conferences, which gave journalists easy access to important information provided by CPC central organs and departments under the State Council. Departments under the State Council and governments of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have held 506 and 757 press conferences respectively. The total number of press conferences held on the three tiers has reached 1321 in the past year.

Meanwhile, regions and State Council departments explored a wide variety of ways to release news and information, such as holding background briefings, giving interviews to individual journalists or journalist groups, issuing government statements, announcements or remarks, answering inquiries from journalists and posting public information on government websites. They did a lot to help media organizations access authoritative government information.

3.In the year that passed, we have always adhered to the rules of journalism and sought to release news and information based on these rules. This guideline turned out to be highly effective.

We required that an adequate number of press conferences should be held and various forms of news release be adopted to meet the needs of media organizations. At the same time, we required regional governments and central government departments to deal with inquiries and interview applications from journalists, release information on breaking news, interpret newly issued laws, regulations, policies and measures and address the concerns of the media and general public as fast and as accurately as possible. In a word, the key is fast response and accuracy. Over the past year, the timeliness and accuracy of our news releases have been greatly enhanced along with improvements to the news release and spokesperson system, the institutions for news release and the mechanisms and procedures of news release. As a result, the media and general public showed ever-greater satisfaction.

For example, given media's deep interest in the initiative of ¡°building a new socialist countryside,¡± the education campaign to ¡°preserve the advanced nature of CPC members,¡± government transparency and anti-corruption, the State Council Information Office invited officials from the Office of Central Financial Work Leading Group of the CPC Central Committee, the Office of the Leading Group for the Education Campaign to Preserve the Advanced Nature of CPC Members of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC to dwell upon these matters at press conferences. We also held press conferences on hot topics such as the development of the national economy, taxation, the reform and development of the education sector, the preparations for the 2008 Olympics, the NPC Standing Committee's deliberation of the draft of the Law on Response to Contingencies, intellectual property rights protection, the protection of cultural heritages, narcotics control, the insurance industry, wildlife protection, public health service, the development of the civil aviation industry and the prevention and control of epidemics. We also issued three white papers respectively on environmental protection, space activities and aging by holding press conferences. Through these means, domestic and overseas media could get authoritative information at the same time. Officials from the departments concerned were invited to the conferences to answer questions from the media. All these conferences were well received.

4.More high-ranking officials held press conferences to release authoritative information in 2006.

Last year, over 40 vice ministers gave press conferences here. This year, 59 leading officials of various departments above the vice-ministerial level, including 12 ministers, took the platform. Moreover, more in-depth information was released this year. The press conferences not only provided authoritative information in a timely fashion but also offered background information and in-depth analysis. The highly systematic information released made it easy for journalists to file reports and was readily understandable to the public.

In 2007, the State Council Information Office will intensify efforts to assist major central organs of the CPC in establishing and improving the Party's information release and spokesperson system, improve the government's information release and spokesperson system and encourage spokespersons of regional governments and central government departments to hold more press conferences on a regular basis. Meanwhile, it will organize a series of press conferences on the 17th National Congress of the CPC, the preparations for the 2008 Olympics and other issues the media and the public are interested in. It will invite officials from CPC central organizations and State Council departments to these press conferences to brief the media about the work of the Party and the government to meet the media's need for such information.

With that, I am ready to take your questions.