Chinese premier vows to ensure product quality, especially food safety
24/9/2008 17:29
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in New York yesterday that the Chinese
government will go all out to ensure product quality, especially food
safety.
When answering a question on China's food safety at a luncheon
honoring his visit to the United Nations, Wen said the Chinese government
attaches great importance to the quality of the Chinese products, particularly
food safety.
Wen arrived yesterday morning for a three-day visit. He is
scheduled to attend the general debate of the 63rd UN General Assembly today and
a high-level UN meeting for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
tomorrow.
Speaking of the public health scare caused by contaminated baby
milk formula in China, the premier said "as a responsible government, we have
taken prompt and resolute steps."
At the luncheon co-hosted by the National
Committee on US-China Relations and other friendly American organizations, Wen
briefed participants on the measures that the Chinese government had taken to
deal with the incident.
"We have ordered all the hazardous milk powder and
dairy products off the shelves, and we have also given the order to seal up and
destroy the tainted silk powder and dairy products," he said.
Wen added that
other measures taken included destroying tainted products, investigating the
incident and holding the perpetrators and involved personnel accountable.
The
premier said what was more important was to learn the lesson from the
incident.
"We need everything possible to ensure the quality of products,
particularly the safety of food as this concerns everyone's life," he said,
adding that "we should never try to pursue corporate profit or economic growth
at the expense of health and life of people."
The premier also stressed
institutional building, saying that "we need to strengthen inspection for every
link and process in the production, at the same time, we need to make every
effort to protect the interests of consumers in real earnest."
"I want to
assure you here that we will take measures to improve product quality and food
safety in China in a fundamental way."
Wen pledged that "we want to make sure
that our products and our food will not only meet the domestic and international
standards, but also meet the specific requirements of the import countries,"
adding that every effort would be made to attain this goal.
Wen also stressed
the importance of social ethics and called on both China and the United States
to step up cooperation to ensure product quality and food safety.
Xinhua
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