State Council bodies respond to public concerns

Departments and ministries under the State Council, China's Cabinet, have responded to a series of public concerns in the past week, involving real estate prices, registration of social organizations, foreign exchange reserves and financial regulations.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a regulation on illegal, unregistered social organizations. According to the law, all social organizations must register with civil affairs departments, and those organizing activities without completing the registration process are considered illegal.

The ministry has set up two e-mail addresses - jbshzz@sina.com and mjjzfb@sohu.com - to receive complaints about illegal organizations. It encouraged those making complaints to use their real names and promised not to leak private information of those who do so.

The ministry has, for the 11th time, updated its list of unauthorized social organizations that operate under false names. Most of the organizations used "all-China" or "national" in their title, pretending to be State-approved bodies.

The National Bureau of Statistics published housing sales data for the 70 medium and large-sized cities nationwide, while Liu Jianwei, senior economist of the bureau, responded to some public concerns.

Liu said the number of cities whose real estate prices are higher than last month is less than those that have witnessed a fall in real estate prices, adding that the former had seen a slowdown in price hikes.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange published foreign exchange purchases data for last month, which to an extent reflects the trend of cross-border capital flows. The administration said capital outflow pressure remained stable and recent cross-border capital flow fluctuations were normal.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said new yuan-denominated lending last month increased by 463.6 billion yuan ($69.8 billion), 1.01 trillion yuan less than last year.

The bank said that the data do not represent a slowdown in yuan-denominated lending growth. Factors contributing to the fall include a high base number for the past several months as well as the central bank's issuing of special loans to stabilize financial markets last year, it said. Considering such factors, yuan-denominated lending growth for last month was steady, the bank added.

The State Post Bureau published a plan to improve green packaging as well as the recycling and reusing of waste packaging to tackle pollution problems.

Last year, the number of express deliveries in China exceeded 20.6 billion, the highest worldwide. To make the logistics industry more environmentally friendly, the bureau plans to increase the usage of electronic waybills, instead of paper ones, by 5 percent annually, and recycle more than 90 percent of paper waybills by 2020.

Logistics companies are also encouraged to use recyclable boxes, bags and tape in their packaging to lower paper consumption.

(China Daily 08/24/2016 page7)