Vice Premier Wu Yi urged to keep on striking smuggling and strengthening cooperation between all departments to improve customs work at a conference on Tuesday.

She highly praised China Customs' efforts in cracking down on smuggling in recent years and the contributions they had made to safeguarding the country's economic and social development.

China Customs' revenue rose 24.3 percent year-on-year to reach 758.46 billion yuan (103.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007.

Wu said it should further improve the taxation system to ensure this year's goal.

The customs are at the front line against smuggling and corruptions, thus it is vitally important to keep alert at all times, she said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)