Premier seeks straight talk in meeting on gov't work

BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- "Talk Strait" is one of the favorite programs on China Central Television (CCTV) for many Chinese, including some Party and State leaders.

Premier Wen Jiabao could be one of them.

The premier invited Cui Yongyuan, the former anchorman of the TV dialogue, to attend the fifth workshop Wen hosted last Friday to seek opinions from representatives of ordinary people.

He started the meeting by requesting that participants "talk straight" like Cui did.

Cui and twelve other representatives from cultural, educational, medical and sports circles voiced their views on government work.

The humorous anchorman, who has suffered from anxiety disorder, did not hesitate and urged the government to help more villagers in remote areas gain access to the modern tool of TV. Cui told the premier that lots of villagers were still unable to watch TV because signals couldn't reach remote mountain villages.

In 2006, Cui organized a group of volunteers to trek the more than 12,000 kilometer route of the Long March, to understand the spirit of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), in a strategic maneuver between 1934 and 1936.

Cui and his comrades showed films to people along the route. Once more than 3,000 villagers had gathered to watch a film projected on a screen by Cui's team.

Cui called for increasing investment in relevant projects so that more rural families could watch TV and more TV channels become available to them.

Hearing this, Wen asked a leading official of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television at the meeting to explain the progress of relevant projects.

The official said that the government had spent 3 billion yuan (411 million U.S. dollars) on the "TV for All Villages" program over the past two years. Another over 3 billion yuan would be invested for the same purpose in the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (2006-2010).

Ma Yihai, the head of a tiny mountain school, asked the government to help provide better access to modern teaching tools such as TVs, computers and DVD players. Wen said that cities could donate excess ones to village schools.

Ma was rewarded with the title of "National Model Teacher" for his persistent efforts to enroll all local school-age children, although his only daughter had to quit the school to help her blind mother.

Wang Bin, head of the People's Hospital attached to the prestigious Peking University, asked the premier to include the achievements of the health sector in the government work report.

He said that it had been remarkable progress for China to achieve an average life expectancy of 73 years for its citizens and an infant mortality rate of 15.3 per thousand, compared with 71.4 year and 29.2 per thousand five years ago.

Other participants urged the government to pay greater attention to the development of education, traditional Chinese medicine and the arts.

At the end of the workshop, the premier thanked the participants and said that their opinions would be considered in amending the draft report.