Wang Mingshi, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), made the call at the last day of the 18th plenary meeting of the NPC Standing Committee.

In recent years, the state telecommunications companies made structural adjustments by hiking prices, while turning a deaf ear to such issues as costs for local users of stationary and mobile phones, the legislator said.

Due to low earnings, Chinese must pay for relatively more expensive telecommunications services than people in developed nations, he said. What's worse, local telecommunications operators are often involved in fraudulent activities, he added.

Monopoly is to be blamed for these facts which have brought about a heavy financial load to local consumers and, in turn, hampered the development of China's telecommunications industry, he said.

He urged telecommunications companies to shift their focus to increasing competitiveness, instead of making monopoly profits. Monopoly has merely brought profits to certain departments, while the state and the people have to pay a huge price for it, he stressed.

When appraising the draft of the Law on Telecommunications, which was drafted by the telecommunications authorities, the NPC Standing Committee should pay due attention to the powers these authorities have demanded and the legal responsibilities of law- enforcing departments concerned, the lawmaker said.

(Xinhua 11/01/2000)