Wu, an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the call at a national conference on the adoption of international standards Friday.

She praised the work of the national committee on standardization since it was established last October.

Wu said it was necessary to adopt more international and advanced foreign standards to meet the demands of the people, foreign trade and economic cooperation, and the country's international competitiveness.

Governments at different levels were responsible for encouraging enterprises to adopt international standards and providing them with good services for this purpose, she said.

According to official statistics, by the end of 2001, China hadpublished 19,744 national standards, including 8,621 national standards that had copied international standards, accounting for 43.7 percent of the total.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2002)