Editor's Note: China unveiled its "No.1 central document" on Tuesday, and continues to focus on green development and digital transformation. At the same time, the international situation has undergone tremendous changes. Today's Global Focus takes you through the events of recent days.
1.China steps up focus on food security and preventing return to poverty
China unveiled its "No. 1 central document" for 2022 on Tuesday, outlining key tasks in accelerating rural vitalization, guaranteeing food security and ensuring there is no large-scale return to poverty.The document, a policy statement released annually early on in the year by China's central authorities, is seen as an indicator of national priorities. Work on agriculture and rural areas has been high on the agenda for 19 consecutive years since 2004.
The document calls for efforts to stabilize and increase agricultural production, steadily raise farmers' incomes, and ensure stability in China's rural areas to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
2.Chinese vice premier stresses high-quality development of Belt and Road Initiative
Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng stressed the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at a meeting Thursday, urging efforts to improve people's sense of gain in participating countries.
Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while chairing the conference of the leading group for promoting the BRI.With remarkable achievements in jointly building the BRI, the work should stick to the basics of maintaining stability while pursuing progress and comprehensively implement the new development concepts, he said.
Han said the BRI should continue to feature extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits and aim for high-standard, sustainable, and people-centered progress.
3.China accelerates steps to promote green consumption
Green consumption is a form of consumption during which consumers fully take environmentally friendly behaviors. At present, a green, low-carbon and environment-friendly consumption philosophy is gradually rising in China.
According to an action plan recently issued by the Chinese government to promote green consumption, by 2025, the philosophy of green consumption will be made popular in the country, and green and low-carbon products will enjoy a larger market share. Besides, green consumption will be a conscious choice of the public and green and low-carbon products mainstreamed by 2030.
4.China's robotics industry catches up, eyes on higher development
According to statistics released by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the country's robot industry reported revenue of over 100 billion yuan (about $15.7 billion) for the first time in 2020. From 2015 to 2020, the output of industrial robots surged from 72,000 sets to 212,000 sets, with an average annual growth of 31 percent.
So far, industrial robots have been applied in 52 industrial divisions and 143 industrial groups in China, including automobile, electronics, metallurgy, light engineering, petrochemical and medicines.
5.Winter Olympics start new era for spread of Chinese culture
The Beijing Winter Olympics had ended, yet the unique "Chinese romance" left by the event still lingers, with international and Chinese culture experts sharing their belief that just like the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, this edition of the Winter Olympics will be another key point for Chinese culture to be further communicated to the world.
6.UN to allocate 20 mln USD from CERF to meet urgent needs in Ukraine
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced Thursday that the world body will allocate 20 million U.S. dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to meet the urgent needs in Ukraine, which is in the midst of a military conflict with Russia.
"We and our humanitarian partners are committed to staying and delivering, to support people in Ukraine in their time of need," said the secretary-general.He said that UN staff are working on both sides of the contact line, "always guided by the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, humanity and independence."
7.Ghanaian expert says China-Africa cooperation in infrastructure to boost intra-regional trade
A Ghanaian trade economist on Wednesday said the cooperation between Africa and China in infrastructure would boost intra-regional trade in Africa.
Abena Oduro, a trade economist at the Department of Economics with the University of Ghana, notes that the development of trade infrastructure would be critical to the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
She said the urgently-needed infrastructure includes railway, road, and aviation lines, particularly the rail networks, which are inadequate to facilitate the easy movement of goods and services from the various sources to diverse destinations as envisaged under the AfCFTA.
8.China to host int'l military medicine forum in March
The Chinese military will host the Seventh Great Wall International Military Medicine Forum in Beijing from March 24 to 27, a military spokesperson announced on Thursday.
Military medical experts from more than 10 countries, including Russia, Serbia and Pakistan, as well as from the International Committee of the Red Cross, have been invited to attend the forum, to be held both online and offline, said Tan Kefei, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense.
The forum will include five sub-forums focusing on topics such as frontier treatment on the battlefield, new infectious diseases prevention and control, and international emergency disaster relief, according to Tan.
9.UK pledges $216m to global vaccine drive for developing nations
Britain Thursday pledged an extra £160 million($216 million) to boost global vaccine development, with the aim of being able to produce a global shot within 100 days of any future pandemic.
The money will be on top of the £276 million that Britain has already given to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global partnership launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future outbreaks.
10.Energy sector methane emissions underreported: IEA global tracker
The energy sector's overall emissions of methane are massively underreported, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday as it promoted cuts to the most potent greenhouse gas as a quick way to make a major impact on global warming.
The IEA said its latest annual Global Methane Tracker had found that emissions by the energy sector were about 70 percent higher than official government figures.It said this showed the need for greater transparency as well as "stronger policy action to drive down emissions of this potent greenhouse gas," responsible for some 30 percent of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.
Editor: Li Qiaoqiao
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