At the regular press conference on May 12, Shanghai Municipal Government representative Jiao Yang answered reporters' questions.

1. Dragon TV: Shanghai will adopt ten key measures to guarantee the quality of local food this year, and one of them is to increase the market supervision of poultry sales and slaughter. However, increasing temperatures have reduced the trade volumes of refrigerated chicken in many markets, and it is easy for local citizens to buy live chickens. Many domestic big cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou have opened live chicken markets. Can you tell me whether or not the Shanghai government will open a live chicken market?

Jiao Yang: I am aware of the situation. Currently, the Shanghai Economic Commission is drawing up a long-standing management plan on the live chicken trade and will soon collect suggestions from experts and local residents. According to the plan, the groundwork and functions of the live chicken market should be compatible with the status of the city as a metropolis, and the total number of such markets should be restricted; the management of such markets should be on the basis of the different characteristics of districts and areas; technical criteria should be established for such markets. In the near future, the commission will standardize several live chicken markets on a trial basis.

2. Jiefang Daily: The central government will soon issue a series of macro-control polices to curb overheated fixed-asset investments. What measures will Shanghai take in this aspect? You have mentioned just now that the city would strengthen supervision of food sanitation and change the current situation where food quality is supervised or managed by many authorities, and I heard that the Jinshan District is the first in the city to establish a food security commission. Can you tell me whether or not Shanghai will introduce a unified city-level institute?
 
Jiao Yang: China has recently issued a serious of macro-regulations, and Shanghai will definitely stick to and carry out these policies. Currently, the city is acting on the requirements of the central government to clean up fixed-asset investment projects: stopping banned or illegal construction projects; suspending or modifying projects that are not in line with environmental protection regulations, urban planning or credit policies; canceling projects which break laws, regulations or national policies. The city will put a lid on the total number of fixed-asset investments while focusing on regulating and optimizing investment structures. We will increase efforts to suspend or reform small steel and cement firms incompatible with industry policies. Following the requirements of the State Council, Shanghai will reform the land market, clean up illegal land occupancy, integrate development zones and try to establish a new land-supply system in order to make full use of local lands. To sum up, Shanghai will strictly implement the national policies and try to keep local economic development in an upward trend.
There are historic reasons that local food quality is supervised by many authorities. Different laws and regulations require different administrators, such as industrial & commercial, health and quality supervision departments, to carry out the regulations. Under existing circumstances, food safety has become very important, and local leaders are paying close attention to it. According to the administrative permission and punishment laws enacted as of July 1 this year, the city will establish a cooperative working system in the food sector and improve local food safety management in a scientific and reasonable way. Local departments are studying concrete measures to guarantee local food quality, with the Shanghai Food and Drug Supervisory Administration taking the lead and other departments cooperating.

3. Eastern Radio Shanghai: There are several Shanghai milk powder brands blacklisted for low-quality. What are the measures to investigate and punish those companies? There is a black-list of local dust-polluters. Can you tell me the criteria for such a list and the function of the list? You have mentioned that the city would increase inspection of pesticides that remain in vegetables, aiming to reduce the standard by three to five percentage points this year. Can you tell me the current standard?

Jiao Yang: The low-quality milk power incident in Fuyang of Anhui Province has really shocked the country. The Shanghai industrial & commercial, health and food & drug quality supervisory departments have promptly investigated the products which have been blacklisted by Fuyang industrial & commercial and health departments, with 35 products of Feique, Feilu, Jianlu and Luyuan brands found below standard and barred from the market. Meanwhile, local industrial and commercial departments have carried out an overall quality supervisory spot-check on all milk powder marketed in Shanghai, with eight of the 80 products found to be substandard. The check covered most milk power brands in the market, and the results are generally good. As large chain supermarkets and hypermarkets have strict requirements for suppliers, no substandard milk power products have been found there. Here, for safety concerns, I suggest local consumers purchase milk power from large supermarkets, hypermarkets or large food stores.
The blacklist of local dust polluters is currently being drawn up, and will be officially put into practice once the local pollution regulations are implemented. All blacklisted companies will be punished by the local environmental protection department and their names publicized through media or government websites.
As to your question on checking pesticides levels remaining in vegetables, the appropriate managers with the local food and drug supervisory bureau are present today and you can consult them for details.

4. ETV:  You said that the environment evaluation of construction projects must be disclosed to the public. How would you do that?  Meanwhile, you mentioned a graded management system for food safety will be applied to all school canteens and the restaurant industry.  Is there a timetable or a concrete set of measures for this sector?

Jiao Yang: Publication regulations for Shanghai Municipality government information have taken effect as of May 1.  Therefore, when carrying out the new rules, we must pay more attention to the citizens' democratic rights and their rights to be aware of the rules. 
Except for occasions governed by the national secrets, construction companies must hold consultation meetings, public hearings or surveys before submitting construction proposals to invite opinions from the related companies, experts and the public. 
Reasons for adopting or not adopting these opinions must be attached to the environmental impact report for the construction project.  For those without such attachments, the environmental department will not process the proposals. 
The environment department must publicize the results of the environmental influence evaluation for public reference and supervision, and ensure the public's access to the environmental information as well as improving the transparency of the evaluation work.

As for the graded management system for food safety, simply speaking, it is that the sanitation supervision department will grade food producers according to their sanitation standards and then rule on the frequency of spot checks that follow.  Producers with higher grades will receive fewer checks and those with lower grades will see more. 
The system, in fact, introduces credability to food safety supervision.  Shanghai began this grading system at local primary and middle school canteens in 2001, with the responding check frequencies for A- B- C- and D-graded producers at two, four, six and eight each year.  The system is working pretty well, as the proportion of A- and B-grade canteens has increased and that of C- and D-grade ones has declined.  This year Shanghai will promote the system for the restaurant industry.
                       

5. Taiwan Zhongtian TV:  In the two months following Taiwan's March 20 vote, Taiwanese are active in purchasing property in Shanghai and some are even coming here in groups.  Has the city government noticed this situation? Meanwhile, according to a recent report, Shanghai's maglev line is a money-consuming image project because of insufficient facilities and high construction costs.  What's the government's comment? Are there any measures to tackle the issue?
 
Jiao Yang:  For your first question, I haven't received detailed data about Taiwanese-purchased property from the appropriate departments.  But I want to emphasize that Shanghai's housing market and its entire environment is open to foreign and domestic people.  We are also open to, and welcome, people from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau to work and live in Shanghai.

Your second question is about the maglev line.  There are comments from all areas. 
According to our information from the maglev company, Shanghai Maglev Operation Co Ltd has adopted a new pricing system as of April 15 and has further improved follow-up traffic measures.  Despite the sharp increase in the number of passengers, particularity those riding for traffic purposes, the maglev's overall operation is good. 
Statistics indicate passenger volume neared 200,000 from April to May 9, or nearly 8,000 per day, doubling that under the old pricing system.  In the weeklong Labor Day holiday, passengers totaled 67,000, with the daily peak topping 12,000.  The ticket sales in the seven days reach 3 million yuan.  All in all, the overall operation is good.

6. OTV News Channel: Can you be specific about the publication process for food safety?  From what channel can the public access the information?  Will it be easy for the public to access and provide feedback for the information?               ??
                        
Jiao Yang:  Food safety is extremely important for the public.  Since too many government departments are in charge of food safety, they must be reorganized to publish unified information so that proper and timely information will be accessible to the public.  The food and drug supervision administration is now heading other departments, including the industrial and commercial administration, technology supervision administration and the health bureau, to establish a food safety information publication system. Once the system is set up, the food information will be published through news media, government websites of all levels, so as to help people buy safe food and access information on this topic.

7. News Times:  QS certificatin is compulsory for five food products.  But in their survey, reporters have found that the QS system is applied to domestically produced products but not to all import products.  What's the situation?  Who will take responsibility for products without QS certification?
             
Jiao Yang:  I have no information on this matter.  You may consult the food safety experts present at the meeting.  QS is a unified standard.  Retailers and producers will take the responsibility for products without QS certification.

8.Shanghai East Radio: The State Development and Reform Commission announced to raise power rate recently. Does this plan refer to household power consumption? What's the power rate for household users?
Statistics from the Shanghai water authority reveals a large shortfall in the city's tap water supply. How will the government fill this gap? Will the water price rise?

Jiao Yang: For household users we adopt a differential rate in peak and non-peak hours. The power authority sets the detailed prices; you may turn to them for more information. Enterprise power rates are raised according to the notice from the State Development and Reform Commission. Shanghai will obey the notice. But the price will not affect household power using.
And it's already reported by the media that Shanghai will hold public hearing on water price in mid May. Shanghai will take close control on price of daily necessitations. This is our principle and we will firmly keep to it. Since Shanghai is short of water resource, the city need to rationalize its water consumption, educate its citizen of savingly use of water, control wastewater sewage and water pollution. Therefore we will hold public hearing on water price. Yet the hearing is only one step in the policy making process, instead of a decision.

9.Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore): Which of the government organs will take part in the traffic condition survey you mentioned? Is the in survey taken once in nine years? And will you introduce the 34 items in the survey?

Jiao Yang: The traffic condition investigation is a complex project related with various sides. The administrations on urban planning, statistics, transportation and public security will take part in the investigation. The investigation will look into conditions in the waterway, railway and air transportation, in addition to the road traffic.
Survey on the railway traffic will be a new item of investigation, since Shanghai hadn't build up rail traffic network in the last survey. The survey will obtain the total transportation volume and passenger flow in each station. The survey will employ hi-tech such as global positioning system and SCATS supervision system and geographical information system.

10.Oriental Morning Post: Currently most provincial governments are checking the fixed asset investment projects. As we know the Jiading County in Shanghai has merged the original 19 developing zones to nine. Is other districts and county doing the same practice now? How will the move influence the prospect of these developing zones?
The environment evaluation draft has been put forward, and will be adopted in the coming September. Will Shanghai start to adopt the evaluation now? Or will it start after September? Which organ is in charge of the work?

Jiao Yang: I'd first answer your second question. Shanghai, like most provinces in the nation, will put the draft into practice. The municipality also worked out a detail practice plan according the concert situation in Shanghai. It will be put into practice after being approved.
Environmental protection issues are generally under the administration of environmental protection bureau. Yet all other departments must shoulder their responsibility for the environment, including the construction, urban planning authorities.
In terms the examination and possible merging of developing zones, the work in process now and we will publicize the figures in a proper time.

11.21 century Economics: Have sinking problem happened to Shanghai's maglev railway? The state development and reform commission recently put forward a general guideline for urban railway construction; will it affect the construction of the railways in Shanghai?

Jiao Yang: I've stated just now that Shanghai will firmly uphold and strictly obey the guidelines of the central government.
The maglev line in Shanghai in built on a soft groundwork, so a certain extend of sinking is foreseen. Measures and technique to control the sink is included in its designing. Sink-prevent techniques that allow the railway to adjust itself according to sinking problem is employ. During the trial run in the maglev railway, a sink within the expected range is detected, while it will not trigger any unsafe, though it might cause uncomfortable for the passengers. The related organs have already adopted adjusting measures. The maglev train will run according to its original schedule.

12.China Securities: In the fist quarter the house price in Shanghai rise 28 percent, compared with the eight increase of the nation. Now the central government is urging the local government to control property price. It is reported that the Shanghai government adopts several price-control measures, such as employ a unified price when provide land to real estate developers, and making it a must for newly launches property project to publicize the sales information on government website. Yet some of the measures have met objections from overseas developers. Will the measures still be adopted? Are there any other concert measures to control the house price?

Jiao Yang: I've made a detailed introduction on Shanghai government's measures to control house price. So in order to save time for other journalists, please look for the materials in eastday website. And I haven't heard of the objections you mentioned from overseas developers. As far as I know there has been no uniformed price in slot approving till now.

13.Shanghai Youth Daily: Has Shanghai put into practice the environmental evaluation regulation, which the central government out staged recently? If so, how is practice going?
Shanghai claimed to build two modernized livestock butchering plants this year and close down substandard, mini scale slaughters. How many plants will be closed down actually?

Jiao Yang: The close down of small butchers in under way, we don't have accurate figure yet.
Shanghai government's awareness of environmental protection started long before. A regional EP regulation was adopted in 1994. Before that, a administrative measure was put into practice in 1988 on EP issues. So from the decades of experience we learnt that a pre-evaluation on environment is the most efficiently way to protect the environment.
Now the new national regulation extend the evaluation scale from construction to urban planning, in fact it extend the object of evaluation from enterprises to local government, that's a break through. More emphasis are put on approving stage, thus cut the source of pollution.