Defense budget to be lifted 7.5%
Source: Xinhua |
March 5, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA planned to increase its defense budget by 7.5 percent in 2010, only about half of last year's planned growth of 14.9 percent, a parliamentary spokesman said in Beijing yesterday.
This year's planned defense budget was 532.115 billion yuan (US$77.95), an increase of about 37 billion yuan from last year's defense expenditure, Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the annual session of the National People's Congress, told a press conference.
Defense spending would account for 6.4 percent of the country's total fiscal outlay in 2010, the same as last year, he said.
However, Li said the figures would not be final until the budget plan was approved at the NPC annual session due to open in the capital today.
It is the first occasion China's defense budget growth rate is projected to fall below 10 percent for some time.
In recent years the trend has been for consecutive double-digit increases.
Major General Luo Yuan, a researcher with the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Military Science Academy, said the double-digit growth was mainly aimed to make up for the then-inadequacy of defense development.
"This year's 7.5-percent increase signals that China's defense development has entered a more mature, healthy and stable stage," said Luo, who is also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference who is in Beijing for the annual session of the political advisory body.
At yesterday's press conference, Li said China's increased defense budget this year would be mainly spent to support military reform and improve capability to deal with various threats.
Part of the money would also be used to raise the living standards of service personnel, he said.
Li said China had always taken the road of peaceful development and kept in line with "the defensive national defense policy."
Taking into account China's large population, vast territory and long coastline, the defense budget was "comparatively low," the former foreign minister said.
"China's defense expenditure in recent years accounted for about 1.4 percent of its GDP," Li said, adding that it was 4 percent for the United States, and more than 2 percent for the United Kingdom, France and Russia.
The military force was totally for the sake of safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.
Li said China had been continuously raising its military transparency by submitting defense budgets to the NPC annual sessions for approval, issuing a white paper every two years on its national defense, and establishing a spokesperson system and Websites for its Defense Ministry.
Luo supported this view. "In a certain sense, where the defense spending goes is far more important thanhow much the defense budget is," Luo said.
This year's planned defense budget was 532.115 billion yuan (US$77.95), an increase of about 37 billion yuan from last year's defense expenditure, Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the annual session of the National People's Congress, told a press conference.
Defense spending would account for 6.4 percent of the country's total fiscal outlay in 2010, the same as last year, he said.
However, Li said the figures would not be final until the budget plan was approved at the NPC annual session due to open in the capital today.
It is the first occasion China's defense budget growth rate is projected to fall below 10 percent for some time.
In recent years the trend has been for consecutive double-digit increases.
Major General Luo Yuan, a researcher with the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Military Science Academy, said the double-digit growth was mainly aimed to make up for the then-inadequacy of defense development.
"This year's 7.5-percent increase signals that China's defense development has entered a more mature, healthy and stable stage," said Luo, who is also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference who is in Beijing for the annual session of the political advisory body.
At yesterday's press conference, Li said China's increased defense budget this year would be mainly spent to support military reform and improve capability to deal with various threats.
Part of the money would also be used to raise the living standards of service personnel, he said.
Li said China had always taken the road of peaceful development and kept in line with "the defensive national defense policy."
Taking into account China's large population, vast territory and long coastline, the defense budget was "comparatively low," the former foreign minister said.
"China's defense expenditure in recent years accounted for about 1.4 percent of its GDP," Li said, adding that it was 4 percent for the United States, and more than 2 percent for the United Kingdom, France and Russia.
The military force was totally for the sake of safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.
Li said China had been continuously raising its military transparency by submitting defense budgets to the NPC annual sessions for approval, issuing a white paper every two years on its national defense, and establishing a spokesperson system and Websites for its Defense Ministry.
Luo supported this view. "In a certain sense, where the defense spending goes is far more important thanhow much the defense budget is," Luo said.
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