Hello, and welcome to this edition of CRI Roundup

A series of bilateral and multilateral events have been making news this week.

China reaffirmed efforts to advance its strategic partnership with Pakistan as the newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari wraps up his four-day state visit to China.

Economic ties between the two countries were at the top of his agenda.

During his visit to China the two countries signed more than 10 agreements including economic cooperation, trade, broadcast and communication satellites.

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China and Russia held a ceremony on Tuesday at Heixiazi Island to unveil the boundary markers for the eastern section of the China-Russia boundary, in the northeast Chinese province of Heilongjiang.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang says the settlement of the border issue between China and Russia has set an example of how to solve complex and sensitive international issues through diplomatic means.

"The settlement of the remaining border disputes between China and Russia is based on the bilateral border documents, international law and peaceful dialogue over many years. This demonstrates the high-level strategic and cooperative relationship between the two countries."

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Meanwhile, a conference of China-ASEAN ministers responsible for information concluded in Nanning, the capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday.

Having signed a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU, Chinese and ASEAN ministers have vowed to deepen cooperation in relation to media and information exchange.

Qian Xiaoqian, Vice-Minister with the State Council Information Office, attended the gathering, and called for China and ASEAN to deal with common challenges with the help of freer flow of information.

"In order to adapt to the changes on the international stage and the development of Sino-ASEAN relations, we should further promote news exchanges and media cooperation between China and ASEAN."

Domestically, an opened debate on reforming the country's health care system began this week.

The reforms aim to reduce the profit motive for public institutions and make health care available to ALL citizens by 2020.

Zeng Yixin, a senior researcher with the 'Chinese Academy of Sciences', elaborates on the reform.

"These reforms call for a comprehensive and systematic improvement, targeting the problems in the current health care system. The governmental investment will also focus on grass-root medical institutions, such as clinics and community hospitals."

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Now turning to the global financial crisis, which many worry, could lead to global economic recession.

Leaders of the 15 euro-zone countries have hammered out an action plan in a joint response to the unfolding financial crisis at their first ever summit in Paris.

The plan proposes guarantees on new bank debts until the end of 2009, allowing governments to help banks by buying preferred shares and providing measures to rescue failing banks through emergency recapitalization.

Meanwhile in the United States, President George W. Bush announced a 250-billion US dollars plan to directly buy shares in the nation's leading banks.

"First the federal government will use a portion of the 700 billion dollar financial rescue plan to inject capital into the banks to purchase equity shares. Second and effective immediately, the FDIC will temporarily guarantee most new debt issued by insured banks."

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On China's economic situation, World Bank senior economist Louis Kuijs said on Thursday that China was better placed than the United States to ride out the current world financial crisis.

But the expert warned that China's economy has relied for more than a decade on its export markets and foreign investment. Kuijs predicts a decline in exports as a direct result of the effect of the credit crunch on its trading partners.

"China's manufacturing industry now faces less buoyant export books. Orders have come down. So far, remarkably, China's exports have actually held up quite well, but the expectation that we all have is that export growth will decline in the coming 18 months or so."

The Chinese central government is now making detail plans to boost the domestic demand in order to maintain the current sound economic development.

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And that concludes this edition of CRI Roundup. If you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to listen to any of our other programs, you can visit our website at crienglish.com. I'm Damin in Beijing. Thank you for listening, and stay tuned for more on China Radio International.