People's Daily carries an editorial today, urging officials to become more knowledgeable about finance and taxation so that they can contribute more to economic development and social progress.

The editorial, echoing President Jiang Zemin's speech at a national seminar on finance and taxation Wednesday, which was attended by leading officials at provincial and ministerial levels,stresses that a good command of economics, particularly finance and taxation, will help officials better perform their duties, which, in due course, will contribute to sound and sustained economic growth.

The editorial stresses the pivotal role of finance and taxationin the growth of the national economy and social development, citing President Jiang as saying that "Financial policy is an important means in macro-economic control and solid financial strength is the foundation of a nation's power, stability and safety."

"Taxation is not only the major source of state revenue, but also an important economic lever for the nation to realize macro-economic control," it adds.

"All Party officials, especially those in leading positions, should be fully aware of the importance of the finance and taxation work, and should learn hard how to better manage money-related matters for the people," the editorial notes.

The Central Government has adopted a series of positive and successful financial policies while achieving breakthroughs in reforms of China's financial systems over the past years, which effectively protected the country from getting mired in the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and 1999. Last year, the nation's total tax revenue hit an all-time high of 1 trillion yuan (about 120 billion US dollars).

However, the editorial acknowledges that there still exist some outstanding issues hampering the smooth development of the financial sector.

"Both the proportions of revenue in the country's GDP (gross domestic product) and the Central Government revenue in the national coffer are relatively low, and the structure of fiscal expenditure needs to be further rationalized," it says.

The editorial blames some wrongdoing in concerned departments, such as rampant fee-charging, saying that they not only "seriouslyaffect the macro-control function of the revenue system" but also "are a hotbed of corruption."

"A complete and unified monetary and taxation system should be established in the course of continued reforms," it notes.

The editorial says that consistent study of economics, politics,science and technology, laws and regulations, history and literature is a prerequisite for improving the quality of officials at all levels.

In an era of knowledge-based economy, globalization and multi-polarization, the pace of scientific and technological advancementand that of knowledge renovation are accelerating. Competition hinges more on a growing contingent of qualified personnel, the editorial says.

To do a good job in their posts, the editorial points out that Chinese officials should keep themselves abreast with the latest fruits of scientific and technological advancement, be more knowledgeable about economics, and improve their ability of macro-control.

The editorial concludes by calling on officials across the country to study harder in order to scale new heights in the course of China's socialist modernization.