An office for reporting economic crimes, affiliated to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security, was established on Wednesday.

The newly-established office announced at the same time that any individual and work unit can report activities involving bribing and infringement upon intellectual property rights (IPR) to the office by dialing the telephone number, 83547515, around the clock.

This is one of the major steps Beijing will take to crack down on bribing in commercial circles and IPR infringement this year, said an official with the municipal bureau of public security.

The official said that the hard strike would focus on bribing activities in 11 fields including construction, land sales, trade of property ownership, purchasing and marketing of medicines, governmental procurement, exploitation and marketing of resources, publishing, bank loans, securities, insurance and telecommunications services.

At the same time, Beijing will strike hard on activities involving producing, transporting and selling fake products and trademarks, as well as activities involving infringement of online property, buying and selling pirated discs and illegal publications.

Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security will work together with local procuratorates, courts, industry and commerce watchdog, quality supervision departments and IPR office to root out bribing and IPR infringement as well as illegal activities of other forms, said the official with the public security bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2006)