介绍:
2017-04-10 Special English
This is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for deepening coordinated reform of medical services, health insurance, and the pharmaceutical industry.
He made the remarks in an instruction to a national teleconference on health reform. Li urged breakthroughs in integrating services of medical institutions at different levels, abolishing all markups on pharmaceuticals and reforming modes of health insurance payment.
He also stressed developing a nationwide health care database and improving the insurance system for severe diseases, among other priority areas.
The premier said the reform results should be translated into the people&`&s well-being and sense of gain.
At the meeting, Vice Premier Liu Yandong called for enhancing people&`&s access to high-quality medical resources and making family doctor services more available, starting from seniors and patients with chronic diseases.
Liu is also head of the State Council&`&s health reform leading group. She highlighted overall reforms in public hospitals as well as improving drug distribution and pricing.
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China&`&s Ministry of Agriculture and the United Nations World Food Program have jointly announced the launch of a strategic plan in a bid to reduce hunger in China and other developing countries.
The five-year plan lasts from 2017 to 2021. It aims to help realize the goal of ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. This is one of the 17 goals raised by the United Nations for its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
By implementing the plan, China and the World Food Program hope to bring about several outcomes. These include reducing the stunting rate among Chinese children, providing smallholder farmers with better conditions and access to markets, as well as improving South-South cooperation between China and other countries.
Officials say the plan will not only help people in remote and poor areas in China, but also serve as an example for other developing countries to reduce poverty and hunger. This will be a new starting point for cooperation between China and the UN agency.
More than 30 million Chinese people were assisted by World Food Program projects from 1979 to 2005. For its part, China lifted 700 million people out of poverty over the past 30 years.
You are listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Chinese scientists are building the world&`&s largest multifunctional research platform for nano-science and nano-technology. The platform aims to help develop more powerful computers and more intelligent robots.
The Vacuum Interconnected Nano-X Research Facility is based in Suzhou city in eastern China. The facility will integrate state-of-art capabilities in material growth, device fabrication and testing in one ultra-high vacuum environment.
Scientists say they are exploring a new technology route of nano-scale devices production on the platform, which simulates the ultra-high vacuum environment of space.
Nano-X has received initial funding of 320 million yuan, roughly 45 million U.S. dollars, and will eventually have a budget of 1.5 billion yuan.
Construction of the first stage began in 2014 and is expected to be completed in 2018. It comprises 100-meter-long ultra-high vacuum pipelines connecting 30 pieces of equipment. Ultimately the facility will have ultra-high vacuum pipelines of around 500 meters, connecting more than 100 large pieces of equipment.
Nano-X is designed as a complete system for materials growth, device fabrication and testing. All samples can be transferred accurately, quickly and smoothly in an ultra-high vacuum environment.
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The number of national high-tech industrial zones in China has increased to 156, with operating revenue hitting 28 trillion yuan, roughly 4 trillion U.S. dollars, last year.
The high-tech zones accounted for 12 percent of China&`&s GDP last year and made up 18 percent of China&`&s total exports.
Officials say the high-tech zones have become a major engine to China&`&s economic growth. Almost 4,300 spaces provided services for more than 120,000 enterprises last year, attracting investment of 6 billion yuan.
Officials say high-tech zones should pay more attention to strategic emerging industries as well as scientific and technical industries; and enterprises, research institutes, universities and innovators will also be encouraged to collaborate on independent innovation.
You are listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
China had 130 billion dollars worth of private start-ups by the end of last year, almost doubling the figure of the year before.
An official with the Ministry of Science and Technology made the remarks while opening an institute for small and medium enterprise research in Tianjin recently.
The official used the term "unicorn", rarely used by Chinese officials, which refers to young, unlisted companies with a market value of over 1 billion U.S. dollars, based on private funding sources.
The private start-ups are spread over 16 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. The majority are innovation-driven tech businesses.
A report published earlier this year said half of China&`&s private start-ups are in a downtown area of Beijing, which is home to China&`&s top three private start-ups worth over 10 billion U.S. dollars.
One third of the private start-ups were born after 2014. They focus on four domains, namely e-commerce, culture and entertainment, Internet finance, and transportation.
The official said a business environment, conductive policies, and good services are key to the growth of the private companies; and unicorns have become important engine in maintaining medium to high growth and to transforming industry.
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A guideline published by northwest China&`&s Guizhou Province is prioritizing poverty-relief efforts for ethnic groups in a bid to eradicate the problem by 2020.
The provincial government will redouble efforts to raise living standards through infrastructure development, resettlement projects and the development of industries, in line with the objectives outlined in China&`&s Five-Year Plan spanning 2016 to 2020.
The guideline has set a target of lifting all 77 minority villages out of poverty by the end of the decade.
Areas inhabited by minority groups have many problems, including low levels of economic development, poor infrastructure, slow urbanization and a lack of cultural and public services.
The cultures of some ethnic groups are in danger of shrinking and disappearing. Cultural heritage, folk handicrafts and art forms are also in danger of being lost.
In 2015, the per capita GDP in autonomous ethnic areas was 50 percent lower than the national average.
The provincial government has named 500 key villages as targets for protection and renovation. The programs will be launched to help people learn Mandarin Chinese in addition to their own ethnic languages.
The province is one of China&`&s most ethnically diverse provinces, with 17 indigenous minority groups, eight of which have populations numbering less than 50,000 people.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
A draft plan outlining a greener Beijing has been unveiled so that the public will have an opportunity to make suggestions.
The Beijing Planning and Land Resources Management Committee said experts led and participated in 38 areas of research to draft the plan, which covers 2016 to 2030. Opinion surveys have also been prepared for it.
The forest coverage throughout the capital has more than tripled from 13 percent to 42 percent, since China launched a national tree-planting campaign in the early 1980s. The plan aims to reach more than 45 percent forest coverage by 2030.
The plan would reduce the annual average concentration of PM2.5 in Beijing to 56 micrograms per cubic meter by 2020, and 35 micrograms per cubic meter by 2030. PM2.5 is fine particulate matter that is harmful to health.
Officials say it can be challenging to bring the PM2.5 concentration down to 56 micrograms per cubic meter by 2020 considering the current situation. The average PM2.5 concentration in Beijing last year was 73 micrograms per cubic meter.
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China has vowed to respond to the call for establishing "safe havens" for cultural properties from regions in conflict.
China&`&s cultural heritage protection watchdog, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said the move will allow China to offer temporary asylum for endangered cultural heritage.
National-level museums and conservation institutions are encouraged to support international actions protecting such artifacts.
China began considering taking action in December last year when an international conference was held in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on safeguarding endangered cultural heritage items.
Chinese enterprises are encouraged to donate more to international foundations involved in protecting cultural heritage.
China will expand its cultural heritage conservation efforts beyond the nation&`&s borders and thus better serve China&`&s overall diplomacy. However, a timeline for the effort was not released, and the institution responsible for overseeing it has not been named.
Such a network was first advocated by UNESCO to respond to the endangerment of cultural relics created by wars and other threats in recent years.
Experts say it is an international responsibility to safeguard artifacts in danger; and it is clear that China will accept the responsibility.
You are listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Tibet plans to spend 30 billion yuan, roughly 4.3 billion U.S. dollars, improving people&`&s livelihoods this year.
The money will be used on 33 projects, covering poverty alleviation, education, health and social welfare.
According to the financial department, 9 billion yuan will be used on poverty alleviation projects, including one that aims to relocate at least 160,000 people to more habitable locations this year.
By the end of 2017, Tibet expects to lift arond 130,000 residents out of poverty, and the per capita disposable income of people in poverty is expected to increase by 16 percent.
Another 6 billion yuan will be invested in the development of border areas of the autonomous region. Annual subsidies to residents in these border areas will also be raised by 1,000 yuan, to between 2,500 and 2,700 yuan.
A senior official of one of the border areas said his county&`&s share of the fund is at 500 million yuan. The money would be of great help to its development.
The county borders Nepal. It is gearing up infrastructure construction for opening up a port. The money will fund projects for water, electricity and roads.
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A Chinese-made wearable robot that can help disabled people to walk is expected to enter the market in one to two years.
The Fourier X1 was developed by Chinese technology startup Fourier Intelligence. The robot was unveiled to the public in Shanghai last month.
The robot weighs 20 kilograms. It helps people who have suffered stroke or spinal cord injuries to walk more easily.
The developer aimed to make the robot more affordable than foreign models currently on the market.
The price of the robot is much lower than similar foreign models, which are sold for between 600,000 yuan, roughly 87,000 U.S. dollars, and 1 million yuan each.
Currently, the company is testing the robot&`&s functions including sitting, standing, walking and climbing stairs.
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