News briefs

Agriculture

Pests, diseases plague crops

China's farmlands face a serious increase in pests this year, in addition to the current prevailing long-lasting drought, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

This year, the accumulated arable areas hit by plant diseases and insects are expected to reach 402 million hectares due to global warming and catastrophic drought, according to a recent notice posted on the ministry's website.

Some plant diseases and insects, including red wheat mites and aphids, which are a great threat to wheat, have attacked most of the country's wheat-producing areas and the situation has worsened recently, according to the notice.

IPR

Crackdown on unlicensed software

Government officials who allow the use of pirated software in their offices will face censure amid a drive to promote authorized software.

All central government departments should ban the use of unauthorized software by May, said Wang Ziqiang, spokesman for the National Copyright Administration.

A national conference was held on Feb 21 in Beijing to help enforce the ban on unauthorized software in 147 central government departments, which demonstrated China's determination to strengthen intellectual property rights (IPR) protection.

Irrigation

Billions to be poured into reservoirs

The nation will invest nearly 63 billion yuan (7 billion euros) on reinforcing more than 40,000 small reservoirs in China as part of its efforts to cope with the ongoing risks of drought and flooding.

Before the end of 2012, a total of 24.4 billion yuan will be spent on repairing 5,400 small reservoirs that have a capacity of between 1 million cubic meters and 10 million cu m, the State Council said in a statement on Feb 22 after an executive meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

Another 15,900 small reservoirs with a capacity of more than 200,000 cu m will be consolidated by the end of 2013, thanks to an estimated investment of at least 38 billion yuan.

The remaining 25,000 reservoirs will be improved with funding from local governments before the end of 2015, according to the statement.

Environment

Heavy-metal pollution targeted

A long-waited project to tackle heavy-metal pollution has been approved by the State Council as part of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

The national blueprint for 2015 has set an emission-reduction target for five heavy metals, in key polluted areas, by 15 percent from 2007 levels, Environment Minister Zhou Shengxian said.

The metals are lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium and arsenic.

The ministry listed 138 target zones in 14

provinces and regions, including the Inner Mongolia autonomous region as well as Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

A total of 4,452 enterprises, including non-ferrous metal mines, smelters, lead-acid battery manufacturers, leather producers and the chemical industry, are listed as major monitoring targets.

Food

Closer checks on dairy products

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine ordered its local branches on Feb 18 to increase their scrutiny of fresh milk in response to public concerns.

The administration said that it had paid closer attention to the quality of dairy products and increased the frequency of food inspections following a 2008 scandal in which the poisonous substance melamine was found in milk and other dairy products.

Since 2009, the administration has placed both melamine and hydrolyzed leather protein on a list of banned additives that must be tested for in fresh milk.

Tourism

Aiming for No 1 in welcoming world

The travel industry will shift focus from places to people this year, according to a recent announcement by the China National Tourism Office.

Responding to the call from the government body charged with promoting inbound tourism, travel companies have been scrambling to cultivate itineraries that go beyond visiting scenic areas to engaging the cultures that inhabit them.

China, which has long been Asia's top destination, recently overtook Spain to become the world's third most visited country, after the United States and France, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

China received 134 million inbound tourists last year, a 5.8 percent year-on-year increase. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism reached $45.8 billion (33.5 billion euros), a 15.5 percent increase over 2009, according to figures from the China National Tourism Administration.

China Daily