1. Bloomberg News: I want to ask a question. Some foreign media reported Chen Liangyu’s son has fled to the United States, authorities wanted to detain him. Is there any news about him? Also, has Chen Liangyu’s younger brother Chen Liangjun been detained?

Jiao Yang: Sorry, both of your questions are beyond the authorization to reply given to me.

2. Shanghai Morning Post: My three questions are all about the“Good Deeds”program in 2007. I’d like to ask you to elaborate on the“sunshine homes”and“sunshine workshops”you mentioned just now. The second, when you introduced 2007’s Good Deeds, you mentioned to regulate the use of school bus. Could you talk about the current situation in Shanghai? What measures will you take to improve the issue this year or in future? The third one is about the preferential policy of transfer between buses. The coverage will further extend. So I want to know if you will consider giving the preference to transfers between bus and subway. Also, the issue of the public transport card has drawn much attention from citizens. When will the audit result come out? Thank you.

Jiao Yang: I suggest every reporter ask no more than two questions at a time.

The“sunshine homes”and“sunshine workshops”are a highlight of the city government’s Good Deeds project. This“deed”will build an access for mentally retarded people to the society. It also mirrors a humanitarian care the society gives to the retarded and embodies the idea of building a harmonious society. Shanghai has done quite a good job in building“sunshine homes.”It is recognized by the whole society, especially those families having a retarded member. Officials from the United Nations and the International Special Olympic Committee also think highly of the practice. This time, we list the“sunshine homes”and“sunshine workshops”in the Good Deeds, which will further embody the Party and the government’s concern about the special group of people. This year, we will improve the facilities, enrich the functions and enhance the service and the management of the 240“sunshine homes,”built last year. A“sunshine workshop”is a training and practice base for lightly retarded people. They can participate in simple labor work there. This year, we plan to pick up 50 out of the 240“sunshine homes”to build a“sunshine workshop.”The purpose is to give them a way to the society and to make them able to do some simple work.

The districts/county in the city will further enrich the functions of“sunshine homes;”enhance information management and build a more comprehensive and customized management system; and encourage an innovative development in the“sunshine homes.”

There are some standards on the construction of“sunshine homes.”The floor area (excluding the outdoor area) of a“sunshine home”in downtown should be at least 100 square meters. In suburban area, the threshold is 120 square meters. A“sunshine workshop”should be larger 400 square meters (excluding the outdoor area), and the space should be for exclusive use. A workshop should have a labor skill training facility (no smaller than 150 square meters) and dedicated spaces for education, recovery training, cultural and sports activities and work display. Brought into the city government’s Good Deeds, the project will have a better development, letting the special group of people enjoy real sunshine and love.

The city government hopes entities and individuals can recognize and understand the needs of mentally retarded people to convey the love of the whole society to them. Each“sunshine home”and“sunshine workshop”will find a social organization as a partner, and will build a volunteer team. These people need our love to step toward independence and toward the society.

The second question of the reporter is about school buses. This is also a new Good Deed this year. You must have noticed that some of this year Good Deeds are follow-ups, and some are newly established. The school bus issue is a newly established project. The use of school buses is regarding the safety of students, affecting families and the society. Now more than 1,400 school buses are running in Shanghai every day, carrying more than 66,000 students. Of them, 370 school buses are operated by kindergartens, primary and middle schools themselves. The conditions of the school buses are very different, and some have problems. Some buses are very old. Some don’t have a distinct signs, making it difficult to be identified. Some buses of schools for migrant workers’children often change their routes and overload students. These are all safety problems. The project will give unified signs to the 370 school buses run by schools and kindergartens themselves. Authorities will also enhance the management of drivers and vehicles.

The city’s education and public security authorities have jointly drafted the regulation on the management of kindergarten, primary and middle school buses, giving specific requirements on vehicles, drivers, license issuing and so on.

Shanghai traffic police authorities, as required by the Ministry of Public Security, have set up a database of the information of school buses, drivers, schedules and routes. Authorities will give a face-to-face safety education to every school bus driver, and the practice will continue on a regular basis. Those drivers who were responsible for a fatal traffic accident in the past three years or have been registered 12 points in the driving record are not allowed to drive a school bus. All school buses must be examined. If the unqualified vehicles can be repaired, they should go through a repair. If the vehicles should be reported to be discarded, the report should be enforced. Unqualified vehicles are banned from taking students.

In addition, students living in the downtown area all pick up the nearest school to go to accept the nine-year compulsory education. Therefore, the public schools providing nine-year compulsory education in the downtown area are not allowed to use school buses. Those already having school buses must stop the use before January 1, 2009. Special education schools and the schools that can provide proper reasons for running school buses temporarily can submit an application to the district/county education authorities. They can launch the service only when the application is approved.

The reporter also raised a question about the preferential transfer between buses, as well as subways. Put in the city government’s Good Deeds, the preferential transfer between buses is a measure to implement the strategy, in which public transport is given the priority. Every day people make 7.5 million commutes by bus in Shanghai, accounting for about 62 percent of the total traffic. It means two thirds of daily commutes depend on bus. It is a very large proportion. Now 73 bus lines in the city have been covered by the preferential policy. This year the coverage will extend to 300 lines within the Inner Ring Road or crossing the Inner Ring to boost the attraction of bus. The practice is realized by the public transport card system. If a passenger takes the second bus within 90 minutes after getting off the first bus, he/she will get a 0.5 yuan discount. As a reminder, the preferential policy applies only to air-conditioned buses.

In the next stage, authorities will consider giving more discounts to senior citizens older than 70 and the students going through compulsory education. The preferential transfer between subway and bus is under discussion.

The reporter’s final question is about the public transport card. The city’s public transport bureau held a press conference on this issue not long ago. Auditing authorities, organized by the bureau are auditing the deposits of public transport cards. The work is ongoing.

3. Shanghai TV Station: I want to ask Director Wang a question. I mentioned just now that the qualification rate of inspection on food will reach 95 percent, and the rate for drug 98 percent in the 11th Five-Year Plan period. The figures are closely linked to people’s life. So I want to ask what the current rates are. And what steps will you take to raise the figures?

Wang Longxing: You raise a very good question. The current level is basically between 90 percent and 95 percent. Shanghai is a big consumer of food. We have named 12 categories, such as cooking oil and crops, as food that is closely linked to people’s life. They should be above the 95 percent level. Of course, the qualification rate of some food will be relatively lower, for example, glazed fruits, which are favored by many young people. They are different from crops, oil, meat and milk, which people consume every day.

4. Tai Kung Po: I have several questions to ask Director Wang. A Shandong-based reporter of our newspaper yesterday developed a story. He reported more than 5,000 fishermen in Shandong are going to sue the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration. Their reason is the administration banned three medicines that are allowed to properly use in the Turbot fish incident. And the standard the administration adopted was higher than the national standard. Is it normal that your standard was higher than the national one? In the 11th Five-Year Plan period, if we take international standard as reference, it is also likely higher than the national standard. The second question, when the lawsuit begins, how will the administration respond to it? Thank you.

Wang Longxing: I have also noticed the issue you raised. The Turbot fish incident didn’t happen by accident. You might have learnt that before we issued a warning of the safety o Turbot fish, we had made a long-time assessment. We need to pay attention to three things. The first is that the standard was not issued by us. The national standard does exist. What we spot-checked was the water food products sold in Shanghai. No matter it was from Shandong or Henan, all the products to enter the Shanghai market should accept a spot check. Secondly, our standard was according to the national one to stipulate what cannot be contained and what cannot exceed a certain level. The third is that we issued a warning to the public to raise their attention. We didn’t say people couldn’t eat Turbot fish. I have noticed that some fish raisers in some regions are going to sue us. I’d like to express our stance here. First, I can understand. Second, we will take an active part to respond. Why? Because they are fish breeders. If their products cannot generate sales, how about their life? But the top duty of our Shanghai Food and Drug Administration is to protect the health of the public. Therefore, we understand them, and we will get prepared to respond.

5. China National Radio: I’ve two questions. One is that the first of the 10 Good Deeds the city government plans to finish this year is to increase 500,000 more jobs. I want to ask how you will realize it. The other question is that national authorities have announced the prices of inter-province passenger transport will not rise during the peak travel season of the Spring Festival. But some recent media reports said that the prices of some long-haul bus lines still rose before the Spring Festival in some areas in the Yangtze River Delta Region. Shanghai was also alluded to. I’d like to check if the situation is true. If it is true, which lines are involved? If not, could you also give an explanation?

Jiao Yang: As you know, to boost employment has become one of the most important jobs of the city government over recent years. Last year, the city government also had this Deed to increase 500,000 job opportunities. By the year’s end, the goal was accomplished better than we had planned.

Citizens pay much attention and have a great demand for an increased employment. The 500,000 new jobs to be added this year include 100,000 non-agricultural jobs for the excessive labor force in rural area. Meanwhile, we will ensure the unemployment percentage in urban area will be controlled within 4.4 percent.

At the end of 2005, the State Council issued a circular on boosting employment. In March 2006, Shanghai enacted several regulations to direct the work. The city government also drafted seven documents last year to adjust preferential tax policies, strengthen the management of dedicated funds appropriated to boost employment and improve the mechanism of small-amount loans.

Meanwhile, the city has also issued two policies addressing the newly emerging issues. One is a special supportive policy focusing on those laid-off workers covered by social security insurances. The city will pay a subsidy worth 50 percent of the city’s minimum salary to the laid-off workers who are supposed to retire within two years, when they find a job. The city will also give a subsidy of the city’s minimum salary to the laid-off workers from poor families who suffer serious illnesses or have lost working abilities. The police took effect from last July, and more than 50,000 such laid-off workers are benefited on average every month. The other one is to introduce a vocational certifying mechanism. Standards for the first 28 professions, which are technologies demanding or dealing with public security, personal security and consumer rights, have been published. The coverage will extend in future, according to practical conditions.

Shanghai helped more than 3,500 zero-employment families, in which no member had a job, have at least one member employed in the past three years. Rural areas developed a number of big projects that could provide a big number of job opportunities, such as environment and sanitation maintenance and riverway cleaning. Such projects have created more than 15,000 jobs. In a word, the government encouraged the unemployed to carve out business and boosted employment through a series of tax and loan policies. The government also bought some public service posts to give job opportunities to those families in difficulty.

The reporter also raised a question about the ticket price rise of long-haul bus lines in the Spring Festival travel season. The inter-province highway passenger transport is a big part of the city’s outbound traffic. The city has about 3,200 long-distance bus lines, involving more than 5,000 operational vehicles. Some are owned by local companies, and some are run by out-of-town companies. And the vehicles owned by operators in other cities are more than local ones. The routes are mainly in the Yangtze River Delta Region, handling about 18 million passengers every year. So it’s very important.

To cut costs for travelers, especially those earning a meager pay, such as migrant workers, and to follow national authorities’regulation, the city will not raise the ticket prices of long-haul buses in the 2007 Spring Festival travel season. The notice was published to the public on January 20.

The details include: 1) During the 2007 Spring Festival travel season (February 3 to February 27), the city will not raise the ticket prices of long-haul buses. A downward float is allowed.

2) Long-haul bus stations should publish the ticket prices seven days ahead of the departure. Long-haul bus operators should tangibly improve their service quality based on a safe operation.

3) District/county pricing and transport authorities should step up efforts to supervise the market. Operators will be severely punished when any price rise without permission is tracked down.

4) After the travel season, the ticket prices will keep to the city’s inter-province passenger transport pricing rules.

Thank you.

6．Cheng Shi Zao Bao：As we have noted before，the program to provide home-care services for 50,000 senior citizens is among the top 10 good deeds planned for 2006. The city has put on its agenda for 2007 the task of providing home-care services for 130,000 senior citizens. Could you spell out government policies towards home-care services for elders? Thanks.

Jiao Yang: Elderly care is now a high priority for the whole society. We’ve said at previous press conferences that Shanghai has become an aged society ahead of schedule. There have been calls for the government to help senior citizens spend their remaining years in happiness and benefit from social reform and development. Both the elderly and the whole society have the demand. Therefore, the municipal government always gives priority to elderly welfare issues and once again listed elderly care among the city’s good deeds planned for this year.

Firstly, 10,000 beds will be added to nursing homes and other facilities for seniors, thus easing the shortage of beds there. Secondly, the number of people who can enjoy home-care services will increase to 130,000. Childless couples aged above 80 and elderly residents living alone will be particularly favored. The government will offer service coupons to the city’s permanent residents aged above 60 who live below the poverty line and need nursing cares.

On the occasion of unveiling new elderly care policies and reviewing the good deeds achieved in 2006, we announced that the number of local residents enjoying home-care services reached 105,000. Service coupons have been granted to the senior citizens who can’t take care of themselves and have financial difficulties. Nearly all of qualified senior citizens who live alone and old couples aged above 80 with no child living in the city have received them.

As mentioned in last year's press conference, the future of the city's elder-care services will rest on home care as the key pillar for the aged welfare programs. Facilities like nursing homes will be supplementary. At the end of the“11th Five-Year Plan”period (2006-2010), 97 percent of local residents will enjoy home-care services—90 percent of them nursed by extended families and 7 percent enjoy home-care services provided by communities—and about 3 percent of them will be sent to nursing homes. A whole series of home-care services（e.g. giving elderly people baths, buying them basic necessities and offering home cleaning services）will be tailored to suit the needs of each senior citizen.

7. Wenhui Daily: Could you elaborate on the rehabilitation and treatment program for disabled children and its entry qualification? The second question is about education. You’ve mentioned rules and regulations concerning traffic facilities around kindergartens and schools. Please be more specific. Besides, could you expand on the interactive computer system between home and school？Is it free of charge?

Jiao Yang: Before elaborating on the measures to help and treat disabled children, I’d like to give some background information. Disabled newborn babies represent 9.68‰of the city’s newborns. Nearly 700 disabled babies are born each year, calculated according to an average newborn population of 70,000 each year. At present, the city has 5,600 disabled children (aged between 0 and 7).

Childhood is a vital period for human’s physical and mental development, and also a golden period of time to rehabilitate them. Early diagnosis and treatment of disabled children will help them rebuild their lives, achieve their full potential, and develop learning and social skills. It will also prepare the ground for their future development. With relatively low investment, the rehabilitation program for disabled children has immediate and beneficial effects, and profound social impacts. It is a salvage mission that will help relieve the burden of families and the whole society. As most of the families of disabled children have been impoverished by handicaps, the children are likely to miss the opportunity to rehabilitate without prompt and effective treatment. Thanks to rapid social and economic development, the city is now capable of financing early childhood intervention, which has already been put on the government’s agenda. The city will guarantee proper treatment for disabled children, meet their basic needs during treatment and safeguard their basic rights.

Local disabled people’s federation has introduced measures to help disabled children, and will offer subsidies for their treatment by granting them guarantee cards. Here are the standards: 10,000 yuan a year for each physically handicapped child, 3,000 yuan a year for each hearing/visually/language impaired, mentally retarded or autistic child. The subsidized program this year will benefit altogether 2,000 children this year, and will continue into the future. However, the fund will be only used to reimburse disabled children for costs (medical expenses excluded) incurred by the rehabilitation programs provided by officially designated agencies. The government will not give money to rehabilitation providers or families of disabled children. Instead, the parents can claim refunds for rehabilitation costs by submitting invoices to community-level government departments

Another issue the reporter has just raised is the rules and regulations concerning traffic facilities around kindergartens and primary and secondary schools. Student security is a public concern. It is a familiar sight that swarms of parents waiting outside school gates as schools let out. After conducting comprehensive surveys, local traffic authority has found that there’s still much room for improvement in traffic safety of the streets around 2,462 local schools, kindergartens and Children’s Palaces. The program is expected to improve the traffic safety, reduce traffic jam and keep traffic order of streets near schools. Here are the detailed rules made by the police:

l、To specially mark at least one crosswalk in the streets in front of schools and nearby streets;

2、To install at least two crosswalk signs in the streets in front of schools and nearby streets;

3、To post two speed limit signs near the two sides of the streets in front of school gate, within 50-100m of the school compound;

4、To install two signs informing there is a school ahead, on both sides of the road within 50-100m of the school compound;

5、To install two signs indicating there are children nearby, on both sides of the road within 50-100m of the school compound;

6、To regulate the parking of vehicles within 100 meters away from the school gate: either to set up temporary parking lots during the“school run”period or to install“No Parking”signs;

7、To draw“No Parking”yellow line along the road curb of main thoroughfares (above four lanes) outside the school compound;

8、To establish pedestrian crossing buttons in busy streets in front of schools where traffic lights are yet to be installed;

9、To establish traffic lights in busy streets in front of schools;

10、To establish pedestrian overpasses or underpasses in busy streets in front of schools.

Besides, the traffic and police authorities should continue to improve traffic orders around schools. We should assign temporary parking lots properly, manage traffic flows scientifically, crack down on law-breaking activities such as overspeed, and try to reduce potential risks of traffic accidents near schools. The police and traffic assistants should stand at streets in front of schools to keep traffic orders during the morning and evening rush hours of primary schools.

As to free cataract treatment, the city has more than 16,000 blind people by September, 2006. Among them, 4,637 people are curable. About 24,557 people have failing eyesight due to cataract and are yet to receive treatment. Shanghai has increased subsidies for impoverished cataract patients in recent years. However, more than 4,600 senior citizens (aged above 70) are blinded by cataract and nearly 25,000 partially sighted due to it.

The central government has promised to eliminate curable and preventable blindness by 2020. According to a nation-wide epidemiological survey, cataract is the leading cause of blindness and the cataract surgery is the main method to eliminate preventable blindness in China.

The city is taking efforts to prevent cataract patients from being caught in a vicious circle (cataract causes blindness, which then causes poverty), relieve the burden of both the families of cataract patients and the whole society, and eliminate curable and preventable blindness. The municipal government will offer free cataract operation to 3,000 poor cataract patients this year. The program will give priority to cataract patients living under the poverty line, totally blinded patients, and partially sighted patients living in rural areas.

At present, the district and county health authorities are preparing statistics for totally blinded and partially sighted people. Qualified patients will be sent to selected hospitals for free checkup and surgery.

The interactive computer system between home and school will not impose financial burden on parents. Initiated and developed by local information commission, the system is an internet-based project aimed at promoting the quality education for local primary and secondary school students. It will offer a platform for local students, teachers and parents to communicate, as well as tailored services.

The system can provide web design services tailored to the needs of all local schools, classes，teachers，students and parents (the city has altogether 1,595 schools and 1.42 million students). A free e-mail service offered by the municipal government, which requires real-name registration, has also been incorporated into the design of the system, thus ensuring the privacy and convenience of the communication between schools and parents, teachers and students. Meanwhile, students and their parents can receive information services such as student records (examination results and teachers’comments) and school information (notices, homework, Q&As) in the form of web pages or short messages，thanks to a software program developed by local education commission to collect information. The services provide a convenient way to let parents know what they can do to help schools educate their children. Besides, the system offers to build online communities (such as bulletin board systems) categorized by theme.

The system will be introduced into 1 million families this year, offering students and their parents useful information (such as education information and student records) and additional services (education methods, consultations, etc.), creating a favorable climate for student growth and boosting quality education.

8、National Business Daily: The first question is for the food and drug administration. According to the 11th Five-Year Plan, medical equipment manufacturing will become one of the city’s fastest growing industries. How shall we support its development？Are there any favorable policies? The second question is to the government spokeswoman. It is said that the government will cancel extra charges for phone calls dialed from Chongming Island to other parts of the city. Please confirm it. Is there any government policy or measure to promote the economic development of Chongming Island this year？

Wang Longxing: You asked about the development of medical equipment industry. As we all know, medical devices are closely related to public health. In the past, many of them were imported from foreign countries. Local medical equipment industry is growing rapidly these years. The industry’s output was worth 2.5 billion yuan in 2000 and 8.6 billion yuan in 2005. Although the official figure is unavailable, we estimate the output value exceeded 10 billion yuan in 2006. Many renowned companies opened branches in Shanghai to research, manufacture and sell medical devices because the city has a good investment climate. First, Shanghai has top R&D centers. Quite a number of multinationals have established R&D centers and production facilities here, which provides a good climate for the growth of local medical device manufacturing. Secondly, the government has taken measures to promote the industry’s development, such as better services and guidance, law training and active participation in the research and development of medical devices. It also offers manufactures guidance in matters of business operation and rules & regulations, thus helping them avoid detours. All these measures have guaranteed the rapid development of local medical equipment manufacturers. Here’s an example. German producer Siemens originally operated in Shanghai based on its past experiences in the homeland. As a result, some of its products may not suit Chinese patients and may violate Chinese laws. Thanks to effective communication and government training programs, Siemens Shanghai Medical Equipment Ltd is developing quickly these years. The government’s active participation and effective guidance greatly encourages the development of medical equipment industry. As China further opens its door, I believe medical equipment manufacturing will gradually become a pillar industry, greatly supported by the government. Zhangjiang High-Tech Park and Nanhui District have designated areas for the industry’s development. Medical equipment manufacturing will definitely develop into a successful industry in a few years.

Jiao Yang：In answer to your second question, the city began to impose additional rates on calls made between Chonming Island and other parts of the city in March 2001.

Chongming Island has been pleading with the authority to abolish additional charges. Meanwhile, Ministry of Information Industry and National Development and Reform Commission are demanding telephone operators to reduce extra charges for telephone calls dialed between rural and urban areas. In response to these requests, Shanghai Communications Administration and Shanghai Price Bureau have adopted the plan to reform local telephone rates.

The reform will take three steps:

1、From New Year's Day, the rates for calls dialed by residential or public telephone users on Chongming Island to the city's urban areas will be the same as the city's other areas.

2、Starting from July 1, 2007, the rates for calls dialed by business customers on Chongming Island to the city's urban areas will be the same as the city's other areas.

3、Starting from Dec 31, 2007, the rates for all calls dialed from the city’s urban areas to Chongming Island will be the same as the city's other areas.

Coin-operated pay phones will continue to charge 1 yuan every five minutes for services within the city.

As you can see, the reform will benefit phone users of Chongming Island, offer cheaper phone rates to rural users and encourage communication between the island and other parts of the city.

That's all for the day. I’ve noticed many reporters still have questions to ask. I’m really sorry. That's all the time we have for this press conference. I’d like to thank Mr. Wang, director of the food and drug administration, and all the reporters attending the conference.