1. Shanghai Morning Post: Thank you. My first question is about opening cultural and sports facilities of enterprises and social organizations to the community. The spokeswoman just now mentioned a measure to buy insurances will be introduced in a bid to ensure safety. I am wondering if only this measure will be effective to ensure the safety? And costs, such as facilities maintenance or spending on management, will be unavoidable, after the facilities are opened to the public. How will these expenses be covered? Besides, I have another two questions, which may be irrelevant to the conference’s topic. A latest report released by the national statistic authority showed Shanghai is the only one among the dozens of major Chinese cities to see a decline in housing prices. Does it mean the city’s recent efforts to implement macro-control on the real estate market are taking effect? Does this decline meet the government’s target? Is there any further measure in the near future? The last question refers to a piece of news published in the latest South Weekly. It said there are some problems in the city’s medical care insurance fund. Can you confirm the news?

Jiao Yang: I’d like to reiterate that today this is a monographic press conference. We will answer the questions about the specific topics on such a conference. But reporters may raise questions dealing with other issues. We will respond at a proper time.

The reporter’s two questions about the guidelines newly issued by the municipal government are the problems we found in our trial practice. Certainly, the problems are more than the issues of safety and fund. These two issues did handicap our efforts to open public cultural and sports facilities to residents in neighboring communities. So, here I want to give a brief reply again.

A school’s facilities are opened to the residents in its neighborhood. In case any injuries happened, who should take the responsibility, the school or some one else? So, after studying and collecting opinions, the guidelines figure out a solution–buying insurance.

First, community committees should buy insurance against accidental injuries for the participants in cultural and sports activities. The district or county government will invite a bid to select an insurance company. Community offices will take charge of raising money to cover the premium.

Second, management organizations of an activity, such as a club or an association, should use their revenue from membership fees to buy insurances for their members.

The reporter also asked if the purchase of insurance can cover all security issues. The guidelines stress the work for safety must be done without any compromise. Firstly, safety warning signs and notices should be put in place. Secondly, involved organizations should organize professionals to check the facilities every time before they will be opened. Thirdly, full-time security staff and police officers in charge of the community should strengthen their patrol at the activity venue.

The reporter’s second question was about the expenses. The guidelines specify the way how to implement a subsidy.

The subsidy will go to the enterprises or organizations which share their resources with community residents and go to those management organizations in charge of daily management.

The subsidy will cover the costs of management, material consumption and repair. The guidelines have defined the three categories.

Community offices will shell out the money to cover the management cost and the pay for the working staff.

The subsidy of material consumption and repair costs will be conducted in two ways. For those social organizations which enjoy financial appropriation, the subsidy will be arranged in annual budget. For enterprises and organizations without appropriation, community offices will pay the subsidy. The communities in poor financial conditions will be aided by their district or county governments.

The guidelines require district and county governments to work out subsidy standards based on their own practical conditions.

The guidelines also require district and county-based governments and municipal sports, culture and education authorities to draft more detailed rules for their work. These authorities are also required to intensify their direction, help, supervision and examination and to set up a encouragement mechanism.

Because of time, I will not elaborate more. If reporters want to know more details, you can consult the guidelines on the city government’s Website.

2. Xinmin Evening News: I have two questions to ask chairman Meng and secretariat Cao. I flipped through the assessment report of Shanghai’s 10th Five-Year Plan for the work on woman and children. I found Shanghai reached 18 of the 20 major goals in its plan. Only two failed. One was quite interesting, saying the gap between per capita annual income of man and woman was widening. In 2005, a man’s income was 23,564 yuan in the city, while a woman’s was only 15,292 yuan. The man-to-woman ratio was 1: 0.65. The gap expanded by eight percentage points from the year of 2000. I want to ask chairman Meng what the reason is. Woman’s employment rate is quite high. Why is the income gap still widening, and are there any solutions? The second question goes to secretariat Cao. There are still many obstacles for disabled people to find a job. Some companies, government departments and social organizations are unwilling to recruit disabled people. How will you address the issue?

Meng Yankun: It’s a fact that the income gap between man and woman is widening. One of the major reasons is that the gap is relatively big in private and some other businesses. The gap is not so big in state-owned companies. Neither is it in retirees. The second reason is that women usually work on lower ranking positions than men though it’s true that woman’s employment rate is not low. Women also account for a larger proportion in low-income industries. Even though in some industries, such as finance, service, culture, education and medical care, women can account for 60 percent to 70 percent, men still dominate high-ranking positions and management. For instance, women account for 70 percent in banking industry, and 80 percent of women employees have college degrees or above. But most of them worked in grass roots. Certainly, another reason is that woman’s unemployment rate is higher than man’s. These result in a lower income level of woman.

I think we need improvement in many aspects to narrow the gap. The first is the development economy. A rapid economic development and Shanghai’s efforts to improve its industry structure will give women more job opportunities. The second, I feel very important, is that women should enrich knowledge and enhance skills. This will make them more competitive and help them obtain better jobs and pays. In addition, a very important factor is an improved social outlook on woman. Some traditional sexual discrimination still exists. The removal of it will be a premise of a fair competition between man and woman.

Cao Ziping: The reporter raised a question about employment of disabled people. According to the feedback from the society, it is still difficult for the disabled to find a job. Some obstacles do exist. They mainly lie in three aspects. If these problems can be coped with, the condition will improve.

First, it’s true that some companies and social organizations are unwilling to employ disabled people, as the reporter mentioned. I think it’s a problem of sense. Some enterprises and organizations have not fully recognized that it is contribution to the society to admit more disabled people. Despite so many years’efforts to promote the idea, the issue still lingers. Some companies always think disabled people will bring them many troubles, becoming their burdens. They haven’t woken up to the social responsibility they should take. They haven’t considered it an obstacle on the way to a harmonious society. Also, they haven’t realized how they should contribute to the construction of a harmonious society. However, we are glad to see some companies in Shanghai show a strong sense on the issue. Taking Bashi Group for example, the company recruited more than 100 disabled people, in spite of meager earnings. Christine opened a company to employ deaf-mute people in Caohejing. Japan’s Dakin bought a workshop in Minhang, providing job opportunities to about 50 disabled people. They present an advanced corporate culture. They think they should something for commonweal. So we will further our promotion, hoping more enterprises and social organization will change their idea.

The second obstacle is the physical limit of disabled people. They are not so skillful as normal people, especially lacking production skills. Shanghai has set up a number of training and practice bases for disabled people, as part of the city’s 11th Five-Year Plan. And the city will boost investment in the professional training for the disabled to help them find a job.

The third obstacle is policies. Disabled people used to mainly work in welfare enterprises. But private companies were not allowed to open welfare companies. And business scope of welfare companies was confined to the second industry, or manufacturing industry. They were not allowed to tap the third industry. Now the policies have changed. The country has issued a new tax policy for setting up welfare companies. Enterprises of all kinds of ownership can open welfare companies. The policy also encourages enterprises in different industries to establish welfare companies. This is a significant policy breakthrough in the employment of disabled people. I believe Shanghai will make more achievement in this issue during the 11th Five-Year Plan period.

3. Nikkei News: I’m a reporter of Nikkei News. I know you have mentioned today’s conference is a monographic one. But there are very few opportunities for our foreign reporters to raise questions like this, so please allow me to ask some irrelevant questions. One is that the press conference should take place on a regular basis. As I remember, the last conference was held in August. Why was the conference suspended in the past three months–such a long time? Please give me a specific reason. The second is about the industrial park in Jiading District. I heard of some news that a lot of foreign companies, including Japanese companies, suddenly received a notice of relocation recently, as part of Shanghai’s plan. I want to know more about this. The third one is about the incident of Chen Liangyu. So far how many officials have been put under investigation? Thank you.

Jiao Yang: Thank this Japanese reporter. First of all, I appreciate your concerns over the municipal government press conference. Thanks to all the reporters seated here, the press conference comes to today.

I also want to reiterate since June 3, 2003 when Shanghai municipal government introduced its spokesperson and a regular press conference, the mechanism has been keeping going effectively without interruption. The forms of our press conference include spot conferences, online conferences or written-form conversation and releases.

The reporter mentioned August. Actually it should be earlier. Since July, we have released more than 10 policies as well as information about government affairs in diverse forms eight times in a row. Citizens were informed of the municipal government’s important information timely and clearly. The city government has never stopped releasing news.

Recently, the spokesperson team received many calls from domestic and overseas media, inquiring about many issues, including the pension fund case. We gave response to the questions reporters were interested in through hotlines, Internet and other means as quickly as we could. We tried our best to provide media and reporters with satisfactory news service.

We will continue adhering to Secretary-General Hu Jintao’s“four centers”and“four leads”requirements provide better news service to domestic and overseas media.

As for the question concerning the pension fund case you raised, we have given our immediate response to the society and media, as I said just now, in different ways. Here I have nothing to supplement. And we will continue our practice on this issue. As for your question about Jiading, I don’t know it very well. Our spokesperson team will help you inquire about more details after the conference.

4. Wenhui Daily: Could you introduce the status quo of Shanghai’s public cultural facilities and its opening to community residents? After the guidelines are issued, will authorities take further measures to improve the work?

Jiao Yang: Shanghai’s existing public cultural facilities include public libraries, cinemas, public exhibition facilities and so on. These years, Shanghai always insists that those cultural facilities built for commonweal focus on serving citizens.

The city now has 239 public libraries in all. There are two city-level libraries (Shanghai Library and Shanghai Children’s Library), 26 district or county-level ones and 211 community or township ones.

The public libraries have formed a citywide network to serve citizens. The libraries have prolonged their service hours as possible as they can to facilitate people’s reading. They also sent books to those poor families, disabled people and migrant workers, and hold a variety of activities, such as lectures, to popularize reading and help build a society prone to study.

Public cultural facilities also include culture centers. As of the end of this June, the city had 250 city and district-level culture centers or stations. These facilities covered a total of 762,625 square meters. The facilities, which are places for people to organize cultural activities, are open to the public all year long. When holding cultural activities for a commonweal purpose, the facilities adhere to principles of free charge or low charges.

Shanghai’s cinemas also grant preferential policies to community residents on a regular basis. The city’s suburban districts project a movie for farmers in every village every month. More than 60 cinemas in the city sell half-priced tickets every Tuesday. Fourteen cinemas in downtown give preferential policies to the holders of their Sunshine Movie Cards from 10am to 2pm every day. A holder can use the card, each of which costs 100 yuan, to watch a movie which premiered seven to 10 days ago. Watching a movie costs three yuan on average in this way.

After the guidelines are issued, authorities will step up their efforts to open public sports and educational facilities to communities. Firstly, authorities will make full use of current resources to boost service of the facilities. The second is to improve regulations and rules. The third is to strengthen the building of the facilities’management team in order to enhance service quality. The fourth is to carry out an evaluation on the public cultural facilities.

The owners of the city’s public cultural, sports and educational facilities should implement measures according to the requirements of the guidelines, letting more people and families enjoy the benefits.

Because of time, today’s press conference is over. Thanks for your coming. Also thanks two chairmen of the woman association and the disabled person’s federation.