LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

　　Following the arrangement of the meeting, I'm honored to make this brief s peech on how to do a good job of protecting and building ecology in Inner Mongol ia during the course of Western development. 

　　1. Have a full knowledge of arduous tasks

　　Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, situated on the Northern Frontier of China, stre tches over Northeast of China, North of China, and Northwest of China and is locat ed on the upper reaches of the four great rivers such as Yellow River, Liao River , Nen Jiang River, and Luan River. As to its geographical position, it belongs to th e Southeastern edge of the European-Asian Prairie and the eastern part of the M i d-Asian Desert-encroached range, so arid, windy, and large in temperature differenc es are the main weather characteristics here. As natural conditions are changing and irrational developments in history deteriorated ecological environment, by no w , the soil-eroded and desert-encroached areas cover 60% in all. In all region, from west to east range five great deserts, five sandy areas and one area encroached by wind and desert at the northern foot of the Yinshan mountain. In the middle re gion, HUNGSHANDAKE sandy area and KERQIN sandy area, only 200-over kms far from Be ijing in the straight line, have become the main sandy areas, which are threatenin g and destroying "the Three-North Shelter belt. " In the northern area, the weak ening function of conserving water in the Great Hingan Mountains has developed i nto the ecological source of disastrous floods in the Songliao River Valley;in t he western bank of the upper & middle reaches of Yellow River are located 29 ban ners and counties, with severe soil-erosion, which have brought 180 million tons of sands into Yellow River. Just as what President Jiang Zemin remarked in his in spection to Inner Mongolia, "Ecological environment here is vital to the existen ce and development of all nationalities in Inner Mongolia, and it also affects th e protection and improvement of ecological environments of the North of China, th e Northeast of China, and the Northwest of China, so it is bound with great signif icance and responsibility. We must do it well. "

　　2. Acquire a sustainable development outlook

　　For carrying out the western development strategy, how to achieve the win-win goa l of economic development and ecological improvement has become the first resear ch topic to all the people in Inner Mongolia. When Premiere Zhu Rongji inspected the work of anti-desertification and sand-control, he pointed out that ecological construction should be combined with industrial development, with people's pover ty shaking-off, and with fortune building-up. The two combinations rightly struck h ome on how to realize the sustainable development of Inner Mongolia. In our prog ram on the western development, the CPC committee and government of Inner Mongoli a further defined the main thought of constructing Inner Mongolia into an import a nt line of ecological defence in the North and expressly require treating the ec ological protection and construction as the largest infrastructure construction project in our region and as the point of tangency and the essence of the wester n development. Therefore, first, we should start our program as a whole, set a goal of winning initial success in ten years, and early fulfill the goal of making gra ss and trees growing luxuriantly and having mountains beautiful. Second, we should make a breakthrough among emergency construction projects, tackle all the proble ms in a comprehensive way, and push the whole work forward. Especially the project of restoring the reclaimed land into grasslands and woods, which has been chosen as the experiment by the state, the protection projects of Yellow River's upper & middle reaches and natural forests of the Great Hingan Mountains, as well as th e sand-control project around Beijing must be implemented quickly and early show its results. Third, we should take the shift of agriculture and animal husbandry from traditionally extensive management to modern intensive management as the es sence of ecological protection and construction;immediately stop destroying tree s and grass to reclaim land;guide peasants and herdsmen to change their planting way from the extensive planting and less harvests into the intensive-planting a nd high harvests, from natural grazing into half-natural grazing to half-feeding. Fourth, adjust the distribution of population and productive forces;actively push f orward urbanization, ease the pressure from the scattered population to ecologica l environment;rely on the industrial upgrade and development between social-econ omy and environmental resources to solve ecological problems in the end. 

　　3. Stick to taking suitable measures to the local conditions and tackling problem in a comprehensive way

　　During too many years, in order to prevent and control desertification and soil e rosion, improve ecological environment, and push forward economic society in full development, the CPC committee and government of Inner Mongolia have made unremit t ing efforts. At present, the area of forests in all region has covered 8. 67 millio n hectares(including bushes), which ranks first in China, and forests covering rat e has reached to 14. 82%. Among them, artificially planting trees occupy an area of 5. 33 million hectares which ranks second in China. Moreover the area of controll ing eroded-soil has reached to 5. 8344 million hectares. Each year we build and pr otect more than 2 million hectares of grassland, and the whole construction area of grassland has come to 10 million-over hectares, among which, the area of enclos ed pasture is 6. 5 million hectares; improved pasture covers an area of 1. 55 mi llion hectares;the area of the artificial pasture and the aerial sowing area res p ectively reaches to 1. 6 million hectares and 460, 000 hectares. Through dozens of years' efforts, we have created one after another artificial oases in arid and ha lf-arid areas so that some areas appear exciting scenes of 'no sands after the entry of human', intense trees, grass, great harvests, and stronger live stock. For agriculture and animal husbandry, basic conditions have been greatly improved;the comprehensive productive capability has been promoted year after year. And the e conomic development of villages and pastures in all the region has come to a new stage. Although the present ecological project and construction scale don't meet well the demands of ecological construction for the whole area of 1. 18 million sq km in our region, they are significant and valuable for controlling the deter ioration, exploring a road and setting a model. 

　　From east to west, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has a span of nearly 3000 km , so ecological problems and construction objectives are greatly varied. According to different characteristics of natural environment and ew-economic conditions , local governments in our region initiate remarkably successful ways with variou s of characteristics by combining ecological and economic benefits with social results. In pastures, local people create a model of 'P. A. P', namely, planting som e vegetation(developing artificial pasture and irrigating feed grass);Ameliorati ng a piece (taking measures such as enclosed cultivating, filling-sowing, spreadin g manure, eliminating pests);protecting a large area(having every herdsman's cont racted pasture properly protected and used), to make the development of intensive animal husbandry and the protection and construction of ecological grassland he lp each other. In the dry farming area which have been eroded by wind and sand, we take such strategy as "Improve, Return, and Restore". Improve means leave less c ultivated land and improve per unit area yield;"Return"and "Restore"mean ret urn or convert reclaimed land into grasslands, woods, and farming land and restore to ecological vegetation. In this way, farming, animal husbandry, and forestry may develop coordinately. In the desert and sandy area, we practice a model of "E. P. A . ", namely, enclosedly growing, aerial sowing, planting grass, trees, and bushes, so t hat we can develop forestry and grass industry while controlling wind and sand. T h ese comprehensive measures, aiming to both the root cause and symptoms of the pro blem, are apt to be organized and received by the masses. Therefore, we should stre ngthen our efforts to support and extend them. 

　　4. Ensuring achievements and benefits of major projects and enla rging the scale of construction

　　Since the implementation of the western development strategy, concerned departmen ts of central government enhance the supporting to the ecological projects in ou r region. We have decided to take national key projects as the keystone to promo te the work as a whole them so as to create a new look of ecological protection and construction in our region. 

　　We have implemented the projects of natural woods protection in the Great Hingan Mountain woodlands and the upper & mid reaches of Yellow River, which include th e Great Hingan Mountain Forestry Industrial Group, 8 forestry bureaus south to t he mountain in Hulunbei League and the 29 Banners and Counties of seven Leagues and Cities located in the upper &mid reaches of the Yellow River in our region. I n the project implementing area, cutting natural woods have been banned totally o r limited in numbers. Through such measures as improving the management to presen t forest resources, distributing the redundant working staff, speeding up vegetati on construction on the waste land and mountain which are suitable to afforested, preventing the further soil eroding in the upper reaches of Nenjiang River , Lia ohe River and Yellow River, the ecological environment of the project area and it 's surrounding area have been greatly improved. 

　　In our region, 11 banners and counties located in the area that are suffering sev ere wind-eroding and desertification and soil erosion have been listed as the tr ial demonstration zones for eroding the reclaimed land into woods(grassland) and given a task of 33 thousand hectares for restoring the reclaimed land and 118 t housand hectares of planting trees(grass)in 2000 year. All these banners and coun ties have carried out the system of job responsibility according to the unified requirement of central government and fully inspired the masses' enthusiasm. Unti l now , all the tasks have been fulfilled despite the severe rare-to-see drought in history of this year. 

　　Project of curbing sand resources in the part of Inner Mongolia encircling Beiji ng and Tianjing under the unified planning of central government is under implem entation. This project covers the wind curved &desertification area at the northe rn foot of Yinshan Mountain, Hunshandak and Kerqin sandy area which are weak in e cological environment. This year, as the initiative year, construction task is 200 thousand hectares and going well. 

　　In addition, recent years supported by the concerned departments of central gover nment central government, we have initiated various kinds of construction project s on ecological environment, forestry, grassland, water conservancy and sustainabl e agriculture and animal husbandry utilizing the loans from World Bank as well a s Asian Bank and aids from Canada, Australia and Germany. All these projects are b eing implemented fluently following the fixed plan thanks to the common efforts a nd harmonious co-operations among parties home and abroad. Sound economic and eco logical achievements have been attained and also win supporting and following fr om local masses. 

　　5. Collecting funds widely, speeding up the construction

　　At present, our autonomous region has possessed both ways and samples regarding t he developing ecological construction. The technology is basically mature and ent h usiasm of masses is very high. Main restricting factor to constrution is the shor tage of funds. So to improve our investing and financing system become more and m ore important. We are trying to attain the goal. Firstly, through perfecting legal system, implementing policy, especially seriously implementing the policies of lon g-term fixedness of contract and responsibility of land and grassland and"who i nvests and who constructs , who will benefit". It will guide producers actively a ccumulate fund to construct ecological environment of their own home while devel oping intensive agriculture and eliminate the thoughts of reaping where one has not sown which exists in some cadres and masses. Secondly, strive for investment f rom central government to subsidize the projects of public welfare, support demon strating projects and direct investment to the projects combining ecological con struction with productive technology;practically solve the problem of limitation in area of emergency projects of sand-controlling and flood-preventing and the problem of shortage of funds in projects developing industrial technology and co nverting to intensive production. Third, actively chasing the international cooper at ion to broaden foreign capital utilization on the projects of ecological demonst ration construction sustainable development of agriculture and animal husbandry. 

　　We do believe, through the consistent and arduous efforts of all the people, that Inner Mongolia will definitely become the effective and reliable shelter of ecol ogy in the North of China.