During China's ongoing annual congress session, the sideline discussion of the Shandong delegation attracted 126 journalists from 89 media outlets on March 6.

The first question raised by attending journalists regarded pollution. Guo Shuqing, Governor of Shandong gave the following reply, " The first meeting was held when I took up my post in the provincial government, was about controlling atmospheric pollution. We have held seven or eight meetings to discuss about this problem so far.".

"However, there is great pressure and the situation is severe because Shandong is a large energy consumption province." He added that thus far four atmosphere indexes decreased after several years' of controlling efforts, however, it still has a long way to go.

Shandong has implemented several measures to control air pollution since last year, including reducing enterprise emissions, eliminating yellow label cars (heavy-polluting vehicles) and releasing the pollution indexes from Shandong's 17 cities to the public.

Responding to the questions about reducing the administrative approval procedures, Guo said that the government had proposed to decrease the number of provincial level approval items to 50 percent. "This year, we will deepen the reform and decrease approvals needed for projects and change the management concept of the government," Guo said.

Other journalists asked questions regarding the adjustment of the industrial structure and financial reform. One journalist from Reuters asked about agriculture.

A journalist from China.org.cn said that the media meeting had shown a confident Shandong Province.

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