VIENTIANE - Chinese Ambassador to Laos Wang Wentian on Friday said the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) has entered the phase of further growth from the phase of nurturing.Wang made the remarks when addressing the LMC Week held in the Lao capital of Vientiane.Under the framework of the cooperation mechanism, China has set up 10-billion-yuan ($1.58 billion) concessional loans, a $5-billion special loan on production capacity cooperation and a $5-billion preferential export buyers' credits to support infrastructure and production capacity cooperation in the sub-region, said Wang.China has also set up a special purpose fund of $300 million for five years to support the small and medium cooperation projects proposed by the six countries, he added."LMC has achieved better-than-expected results, and is entering a phase of further growth from the phase of nurturing," he said.Institutional platform building has made steady progress, with a four-tiered meeting mechanism in place consisting of meeting among leaders, foreign ministers, senior officials and working groups, he said.Major development projects are moving forward smoothly, Wang said, adding that financial support that China pledged is being delivered, and construction of the China-Laos Railway and the China-Thailand Railway has been underway.Wang said he believed in the next two years, as the co-chair countries, China and Laos will work closely to implement the consensus reached in January at the second leaders' meeting in Cambodia and actively plan for the next step.Over 200 representatives from the Lao foreign ministry, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) embassies and other foreign embassies and missions participated in the event.The LMC is a sub-regional cooperation mechanism connecting six countries along the river, Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. custom bar braceletcool rubber braceletsmake custom bracelets onlinecustom wrist bandslokai rubber bracelet
BEIJING - Deputies to the National People's Congress Thursday shared their experiences on poverty alleviation at a press conference held on the sidelines of the ongoing session.Zhao Huijie, Party Secretary of Xiaomiaozi village of Chifeng city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, said the village was striving to inspire people to live a happy life.We taught a family to raise organic pigs and geese and now not only have they been lifted out of poverty but their ambition has been totally inspired, Zhao said.The annual income per capita of his village was raised from 3,000 yuan (about $475) in 2009 to 13,000 last year.Li Jun, Party Secretary of Xiuyun village in Southwest China's Sichuan province, said his village had started a new poverty alleviation plan to give the impoverished more esteem.We have paired more than 5,000 city households with people who are living below the poverty line. Instead of pure donation, the donors buy agricultural produce from the poverty-stricken families, Li said.China plans to lift at least 10 million people out of poverty this year, according to the annual government work report made by Premier Li Keqiang. The country will put more effort into developing local industry, education and healthcare, according to the report.There were around 30 million Chinese living below the national poverty line at the end of last year.The challenges lie in illness, said Xiang Changjiang, director of the village committee of Xiangjia village of Longhui county, Central China's Hunan province. Many people were thrown back to poverty due to illness.He suggested that government make policies to support people living in the rural areas who have serious illness, improve the health care system and increase the medical reimbursement ratio.The work gets harder towards the end, but we have confidence, said Cao Qinghua, Party Secretary of Lianzhu township of Puer city, Southwest China's Yunnan province.
