Top Party and State Leaders Stress Quality of Projects 　　The collapse of the cross-river sidewalk bridge in Qijiang County, Chongqing Municipality has caught the attention of leaders of the Party Central Committee and the State Council who have given important instructions on strengthening management of project quality. Having conducted an on-the-spot investigation, the Ministry of Construction has issued an emergency circular on problems related to the accident to construction departments nationwide. An official of the ministry said that the accident reflected the fact that management of the local construction market was chaotic or no management at all. In addition, the corrupt practice in the process of construction was the main cause of the serious accident. 　　With regard to strengthening the management of project quality, the ministry called on various localities to mainly tackle the following aspects of work: Acting strictly in accordance with the procedures of capital construction, instituting a bid invitation and submission system; establishing a perfect project quality responsibility system; and improving and perfecting the government's project quality supervision system. In the first half of this year, various regions and departments should universally carry out a general inspection of the implementation of compulsory standards relating to the project structure and foundation safety. 　　 HomeNews 1999-01-13 Page1