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Following are facts and figures on China's achievements in economic and social development in 2004, which are available in the report on the work of the government delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao Saturday at the annual session of China's national legislature:

-- China's GDP reached 13.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.5 percent over the previous year;

-- The government revenue was 2.63 trillion yuan, up 21.4 percent year on year;

-- The retail sales of consumer goods totaled 5.4 trillion yuan, up 13.3 percent;

-- The volume of imports and exports amounted to 1.15 trillion US dollars, an increase of 35.7 percent, moving China up to the third place in the world from the fourth in the previous year;

-- Some 9.8 million urban residents entered the workforce for the first time, a figure that exceeded the target;

-- Per capita urban disposable income grew by 7.7 percent in real terms, and rural per capita net income rose 6.8 percent in real terms;

-- The central government spent 262.6 billion yuan on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, an increase of 22.5 percent;

-- Grain output for 2004 totaled 469.45 billion kilograms, 38.75 billion kilograms more than the previous year;

-- Fixed asset investment across the country increased by 25.8 percent for the whole year, 17.2 percentage points less than the first quarter;

-- A 4,000-km-long pipeline to divert natural gas from the west to the east was completed in its entirety and put into operation;

-- Coal production capacity was expanded by 120 million tons, installed power-generating capacity was increased by 50.55 millionkilowatts, and an additional 1,433 kilometers of railways and 46,000 kilometers of highways were opened to traffic;

-- A total of 60.6 billion US dollars of foreign direct investment were utilized;

-- A total investment of 80 billion yuan was made to start construction on ten key projects in the western region;

-- Spending for science and technology, education, culture, health and sports amounted to 98.7 billion yuan from the central budget and 14.7 billion yuan from the sale of treasury bonds;

-- The state provided free textbooks for more than 24 million students from poor rural families receiving compulsory education in the central and western regions;

-- Construction on 1,410 county-level and 250 province- and city- (prefecture-) level disease prevention and control centers was basically completed, and construction on 290 emergency medicalcenters is underway;

-- A total of 146.5 billion yuan was spent from the central budget for social security last year, an increase of 18.1 percent over the previous year;

-- Poverty alleviation work was intensified, with 12.2 billion yuan appropriated from the central budget for the work, thereby reducing the number of poverty-stricken rural people by 2.9 million year-on-year;

-- Governments at all levels promptly provided disaster relief and carried out reconstruction work, assisting 68 million victims;and

-- A total of 33.2 billion yuan of wages that had been defaulted for years has now been paid.

Editor: Catherine