Extracts. Dow Slips Below 10,000, Sets up Worst Week in 11 Years The prospect of the economic slowdown spreading around the globe shook Wall Street Wednesday, sending the Dow Jones industrials below 10,000 and setting the blue chip index up for its worst week in more than 11 years. The fears on U.S. markets matched those on exchanges in Europe and Asia ¡ª that slowing economies will continue to hurt corporate profits and, in turn, stock prices. The Dow fell 317.34 to 9973.46, recovering some ground after an earlier 395-point slide. But the losses easily wiped out Tuesday's 82-point advance and compounded Monday's 436-point drop. Broader market indicators also skidded Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite fell 42.68 to 1972.10, while the Standard & Poor's 500 tumbled 30.95 to 1166.71. It was the first time since Oct. 18 that the Dow closed below 10,000. **** Jiang Congratulates Re-elected President of Lao People's Revolutionary Party Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on Wednesday sent a telegram to congratulate Khamtay Siphandone on his re-election as the President of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party at the seventh congress of the party. In the telegram, which was presented after the closing session of the congress by Luo Gan, leader of the visiting CPC delegation, and Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Jiang said he sincerely and ardently congratulates Khamtay in the name of the CPC Central Committee and himself. Jiang said that he is very glad to witness the new achievements and victories gained by Lao people during their renovation, opening-up and state-construction course under the leadership of the Lao party, since the Sixth Congress of the Lao party in 1996. He noted that during the same period, the two parties and two peoples of China and Laos also have jointly promoted their relations to a new era. The CPC will continue to strengthen the friendly exchange and cooperation with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, and work persistently for developing closer and more intimate Sino-Lao ties in the new century, said the top Chinese leader. He said he wishes Khamtay to make greater achievements during his new term as the Lao party leader. Jiang also expressed his strong wishes of further strengthening and consolidating the traditional friendship between the two parties, two countries and two people, and hoped Laos to achieve national prosperity and people's well-being. Khamtay was re-elected to his third five-year term as the Lao party leader at the five-yearly party congress which closed here Wednesday afternoon. **** Yugoslav Leader Blasts NATO Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica accused NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo Tuesday of "direct collaboration" with anti-government ethnic Albanian guerrillas in southern Serbia. "KFOR enabled and in some way supported or was helping the terrorists," Kostunica said, using an acronym for the peacekeeping force, which includes more than 5,000 U.S. troops. "For sure, in the case of some units, there was direct collaboration between KFOR and the (rebels)." Kostunica's statements, in an interview with USA TODAY, came one day after NATO agreed to allow Yugoslav soldiers to return to part of a buffer zone ringing Kosovo. The so-called "ground safety zone" was created at the end of NATO's war in 1999 with Yugoslavia over Kosovo, a Serbian province where the ethnic Albanian majority had waged a separatist rebellion. The three-mile-wide buffer zone was designed to prevent incidents between Yugoslav forces and NATO peacekeepers. But Albanian guerrillas moved into the vacuum, seizing control of ethnic Albanian villages in Serbia's Presevo Valley and in neighboring Macedonia. U.S. soldiers are based in eastern Kosovo, adjacent to the area where fighting has occurred recently. Kostunica has complained that peacekeepers are not doing enough to stop ethnic Albanian fighters from crossing into southern Serbia from U.N.-administered Kosovo. Tuesday, he broadened his indictment, saying KFOR troops, wary of taking casualties, should show "more courage" and confront armed Albanians. KFOR was slow to react to the ethnic Albanian insurgency. In recent weeks, U.S.-led peacekeepers have stepped up their patrols and conducted surveillance overflights of rebel-held territory. But Kostunica said, "Flights of KFOR helicopters have been traced that gave the impression of being used as a sort of logistics support to the terrorists rather than surveilling them." **** Delegation Leaders of CPC, PPC Meet in Vientiane Luo Gan, leader of visiting delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) met Heng Samrin, leader of the delegation of the People's Party of Cambodia (PPC) Wednesday in Vientiane on the sideline of the Seventh Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. Luo Gan, also member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, first asked his counterpart to convey the greetings and best wishes of Chinese party and state leaders to Norodom Sihanouk, the king of Cambodia, and other Cambodian leaders. In return, Heng asked Luo to convey the best wishes from Cambodian leaders to their Chinese counterparts. "The CPC will seek new-type and stronger ties with PPC and the further development of the Sino-Cambodian relations on the principles of independence and freedom, equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs," said Luo. Heng, the PPC Honorable chairman, said, "the two countries are brotherly neighbors, and the traditional Cambodian-Chinese friendly relationship which was initiated by the old generation of leaders from both sides, has been further developed." During the meeting, Luo also expressed the appreciation and the gratitude on the stand of the Cambodian government of sticking to the "One China Policy" and supporting the unification of the both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Heng said the PPC and the Cambodian government sincerely thank the CPC, the Chinese government and the Chinese people for their persistent support to the Cambodian people. Both delegations are attending the five-yearly Lao party congress being held here from March 12 to 14. **** Four Major Projects Will Re-draw China's Economic Division Map The four major projects-south-to-north water diversion, west-to-east gas transfer, west-to-east power transmission and the construction of Qinghai <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/qinghai.html> -Tibet <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/tibet.html> Railway set down in the Outline of the 10th Five-year Plan-will be successively launched in the next five years. NPC deputies and CPPCC members attending the ongoing "two sessions" said that like the 56 key projects built shortly after the founding of New China in 1949, these four major projects will open a new chapter in the history of the Republic on the construction of key projects during the new century. The four major projects once again demonstrate the heroic spirit of the industrious and valiant Chinese people: An unprecedented mammoth transfer of resources will mean the re-drawing of China's economic division map. South-to-North Water Diversion: Strategic restructuring of water resources The vast north Chinese land that has been dried for many years is in urgent need of aid from the water-rich south China. So construction of a project diverting water from the south to the north began after the birth of New China. Although China has built many cross-river valley or long-distance water-diversion projects over the past half century, the "water-rich south and water-deficient north" problem, however, has so far not been fundamentally resolved. In the last year of the 20th century, north China was hit by the severest drought ever in the past 50 years. How to rearrange the distribution of the country's water resources has become an urgent task placed before us. So the "south-to-north water diversion" project has again been placed on the agenda. Based on experts' scientific, long-term discussions and proofs, the project takes three formulas for diverting water through the west, east and middle lines. The west-line formula is diverting water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River into the Yellow River, so as to solve the water-shortage problem facing the northwest region; the east-line formula is to transfer water from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which flows northward along the northern Jiangsu <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/jiangsu.html> section of the Beijing <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/beijing.html> -Hangzhou Grand Canal and along other rivers and lakes and through the Yellow River in the vicinity of Dongping of Shandong <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/shandong.html> Province into Hebei <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/hebei.html> Province and Tianjin <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/tianjin.html> Municipality; the middle-line formula is to divert water from the reservoir at the Danjiang River mouth on the upstream of the Hanjiang River, then flows across the valleys of the Yangtze, Huaihe, Yellow and Haihe rivers straight through a number of cities in Henan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/henan.html> and Hebei provinces into Beijing and Tianjin. Such a magnificent project is rarely seen in the world history of water conservancy. The great significance of the south-to-north water transfer project lies in the overall, strategic structural readjustment of the water resources of China's Yangtze and Yellow river valleys. After completion of the project, the volume of water transferred annually will be equal to that of another Yellow River created in the north, which will mean fundamentally reversing the passive situation featuring the serious unbalanced distribution of China's water resources. With the re-setting of the distribution of water resources, not only will more than 20 big and medium-sized cities including Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang free themselves from the fetter of water shortage, but new economic growth points will arise in regions along the line, particularly western regions. Transmitting Energies to Each China: Coordinated national efforts to stimulate the State economy The reform and opening up drive has kept the rapid Chinese economic development (higher than the world average rate of economic growth) for more than 20 years. In the new century, more petroleum and gas will be needed for the "train" of China's speeding economic development. In China's economically developed southeast coastal areas, the shortage of energy has restrained local economic growth. Objectively, the distribution of China's energies is seriously unbalanced: on the one hand, the expansive western areas have rich deposits of natural gas, petroleum, hydroelectric power and other important resources, huge volume of hydroelectric power is waste there; on the other hand, the rapidly developing eastern region needs the import and supplement of various resources and energies. This situation of energy distribution has caused rising production cost in the southeastern region dominated by an export-oriented economy. And yet the energy-rich western region is leading a poor life. Construction of the two major projects: west-to-east power transmission and west-to-east gas transfer will rationalize China's energy distribution, and will greatly improve the overall economic benefits of the State economy. West-to-east Power Transmission The west-to-east power transmission is an indicative project of the large-scale development of the western region. During the 10th Five-year Plan period, this project will lead to the formation of a north-middle-south route power transmission pattern: The north route will transmit power from Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/shaanxi.html> and other provinces and autonomous regions to north China power grid, five years later it will transmit 2.7 million kw power to Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan regions; the middle route will send power from Sichuan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/sichuan.html> and other provinces to central and east China power grid; and the south route from Yunnan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/yunnan.html> , Guizhou <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/guizhou.html> Guangxi <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/guangxi.html> and other provinces and autonomous region to south China, five years later, it will transmit 10 million kw power to Guangdong <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/guangdong.html> Province. The west-to-east gas transfer project involving a total investment of 146.3 billion yuan will have a 4,200-km pipeline laid to transfer the rich natural gas from western Xinjiang <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/xinjiang.html> and other regions to energy-short Shanghai <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/Shanghai.html> and other eastern areas. Current exploration shows that the western region has a deposit of 22,400 billion cubic meters of natural gas resources and can transfer 12 billion cubic meters of gas annually to the Yangtze River Delta and other regions along the line, so there is no problem with the stable supply of natural gas for 30 years. Implementation of the west-to-east power transmission project and the west-to-east gas transfer project will boost the development of China's manufacturing, power construction and building materials industries. Energy consumption of the people in the central and eastern regions will enter the era of clean and high-efficient natural gas. Completion of the two major projects will turn the western region into a powerful energy base of China, while the eastern region will become a production base of rapid operation. When eastern and western regions that link to and promote each other realize common rapid development, all undertakings (like coordinated nationwide efforts on a single chessboard) of the country will develop more vigorously. Qinghai-Tibet Railway: the biggest "Cross" character in the world rail network For the Tibetan people who have just entered into the 21st century, the most gratifying news is: nothing is more than construction of a Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Following the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will add a "golden bridge" leading to a happy life for the offspring of the million serfs, people of the whole country and overseas tourists will find it more easy and convenient to travel to the "Roof of the World". Over the past 50 years, the Chinese people have completely changed the history recording that there was almost no railway to the west of the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway in the early stage after the founding of New China. A look at the map of Chinese railways in operation reveals that if the Beijing-Kowloon Railway built during the Ninth Five-year Plan period is seen as a bold "vertical" stroke that runs north and south, then, the 1,118-km-long Qinghai-Tibet Railway, at the western end of the Longhai (Lanzhou-Lianyungang) Railway line, to be built during the 10th Five-year Plan period, that leads to Lhasa, will represent a mighty "horizontal" stroke, these "vertical" and "horizontal" strokes that run through the whole of China will be formed into the largest "Cross" character in the world's railway web. Along with the implementation of the strategy for the large-scale development of the western region, opening the railway passageway between the inland and Tibet has become imperative. According to the plan, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway starts from Golmud City, Qinghai Province through Wangkun of Qinghai Province, across Tanggula Mountain and into the Tibet Autonomous Region, then via Amdo, Nagqu and Damxung counties, it finally reaches Lhasa City, the capital of the autonomous region. After completion of this railway, it will greatly promote the development of this region. More importantly, construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will perfect the crisscrossing, trunk-feeder integrated railway transport network.. Then, the eastern, central, western regions, and south and north China will be linked to each other and integrated more closely. Construction of the four major projects will bring even better life for the common people. In just a few years to come, Wuhan will use electricity from Sichuan, Shanghai will burn natural gas from Xinjiang, people from the eastern region will arrive at Lhasa or the "sunshine city" by train, and people of north China will drink sweet water from the Yangtze River¡-. The four major projects will become a strong driving mechanism for developing the western region, balancing resources, stimulating domestic demands and expanding markets; economic development in western, central and eastern regions will become integrated, the economies in less developed areas will grow rapidly, developed areas will have greater driving force for development. In the new century, the train of the Chinese economy will roar all the way forward and will never stop advancing. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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