More foreign media, journalists and academics have highlighted the ongoing 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the report delivered by Hu Jintao, while highly praising the importance of the party congress.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency and the Chosun Ilbo daily have been running stories on the event and Hu's report since the convening of the congress Monday, focusing on the new remarks and keywords in the report.

The Yonhap News Agency published a story on Wednesday, interpreting Hu's remarks such as "conservation culture" and "developing socialism with Chinese characteristics" as a distillation of the CPC's Scientific Outlook on Development and building a harmonious society.

The article said the Chinese government will create conditions for civilians to increase their income through multiple means by saying "conditions will be created to enable more citizens to have property income."

The daily Chosun Ilbo said in an article that the sound and rapid economic development policy mentioned in Hu's report shows China's ongoing shift from focusing on the quantity to focusing on the quality of economic growth.

The mainstream newspapers in Bulgaria extensively covered the congress and focused on such elements as fighting corruption, narrowing the gap between the rich and poor and building a harmonious society outlined in the report delivered by Hu, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

The Standart newspaper carried a report saying Chinese leaders have put forward the notion that social harmony means the eradication of the gap between rich and poor.

The Duma newspaper said curbing resources waste and fighting social inequity will be the basis for China's economic growth over the next five years.

A report by the 24 Chasa newspaper said China's socialism will produce a harmonious society.

The German media is also closely following the 17th CPC National Congress. Leading newspapers such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, Sud-deutsche Zeitung and Handelsblatt all carried reports Tuesday on the opening of the congress and Hu's report.

In a front-page story, Sud-deutsche Zeitung said CPC leaders stressed an environmentally-friendly economic policy and an equitable income distribution principle. The newspaper Die Welt said Wednesday that opening panel discussions to foreign reporters during the congress represented a new attitude.

In an interview with Xinhua on Friday, Kwon O-kyu, deputy prime minister and minister of finance and economy of South Korea, said his country has been paying great attention to the ongoing CPC National Congress.

He expressed South Korea's willingness to continue working closely with China's new leadership, so as to lay a new foundation for bilateral economic cooperation and regional prosperity.

An expert on China issues, senior Brazilian reporter Karlos Tavarez described Hu's report at the Congress as correct and constructive during an interview with Xinhua. The report is comprehensive and balanced, he said, helping the world to know more about China's political and economic development trend in the near future, and making the world more confident in China's future.

While stressing scientific development and building a harmonious society, the report also promised to fight against and prevent corruption, eliminate bureaucracy, and strike against fake and pirated products, Tavarez said. The goal of quadrupling the per capita GDP by 2020 from 2000 levels proposed in the report is very important and eye-catching, he said, and will help the growth of the global economy.

He also appreciated the report's call for an end to hostility and a peace deal to be reached across the Taiwan Strait, believing China's national reunification would not only bring peace to the country, but also bring a better life to all Chinese.

Gu Xuewu, Director of the Institute of East Asian Politics, School of East Asian Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum, told Xinhua in an interview that Hu's report further highlighted the theory of people-orientation, exemplified by setting the target of quadrupling China's per capita GDP by 2020 against 2000 levels.

Emphasizing the need to increase the ratio of labor income in the preliminary income distribution and promoting a conservation culture were also good examples of the putting-the-people-first theory, Gu said.

China's development, centered on its economy, has now assumed two wings, one being building a harmonious society and the other promoting a culture of conservation. These two wings will help China prevent shortsightedness as the country develops a market-oriented economy and humanizes its economic development, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2007)