BEIJING, March 19: China's premier Zhu Rongji today expressed his desire to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee but evaded a question on the ruling BJP's national agenda on India going nuclear.He admitted Beijing faced severe challenges in the face of the financial crisis in Southeast Asian countries and called for ensuring that economic growth rate increased while inflation was kept under check.
``We must ensure that the growth rate for this year must reach eight per cent, China's inflation must be lowered to three per cent, and China's yuan cannot be devalued,'' he said at the close of the annual session of China's parliament, the National People's Congress. China enjoyed ``good financial conditions'', he added, citing low inflation and strong growth of the gross domestic product. With such an economic performance ``we have the possibility of channeling more financial resources to fund domestic demand'' Zhu said, referring to projects previously emphasised by authorities including infrastructure,agriculture and water resources.
Zhu called on the central bank of strengthen supervision of the financial system and said banks ``must operate independently'' of the state.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
