Input in Farming, Education, Science Raised: Minister

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 06, 2002

Input in Farming, Education, Science Raised: Minister

In 2001, China's central government increased investment in agriculture, science and education, according to Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng.

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In 2001, China's central government increased investment in agriculture, science and education, according to Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng.

The minister made the remark in his Report on the Implementation of the Central and Local Budgets for 2001 and on the Draft Central and Local Budgets for 2002, delivered at the current session of the National People's Congress Wednesday.

The central government allocated 3.3 billion yuan in the form of transfer payments to support and improve experimentation with the reform of taxes and fees in Anhui Province and 106 counties in other regions to lighten the financial burden on farmers there.

A policy on agricultural tax reduction or exemption was implemented for areas affected by disasters or crop failure. The reduction and exemption amounted to 5 billion yuan in such areas, 4 billion yuan of which was in the form of subsidies from the central budget during the year.

More funding was allocated to fight poverty in rural areas. The central government allocated 10 billion yuan to fight poverty, resulting in further improvement in conditions for production and daily life among the poor population in rural areas.

A total of 4.2 billion yuan was used to help restore cultivated land to forests and plant barren hills and uncultivated land with trees to further improve the ecological environment and increase farmers' incomes in the western region.

Investment was increased in projects related to natural forest protection, comprehensive agricultural development, agricultural science and technology and industrial management of agricultural production. A total of 23.3 billion yuan was allocated for these items from the central budget.

Funds were allocated to implement the policy on grain risk funds, support efforts to deepen reform of the grain distribution system and increase incomes of major grain-producing areas and farming households.

The minister said that for these purposes, the central government increased total grain risk funds by 4.9 billion yuan for major grain-producing areas. Subsidies from the central government granted to local governments in the form of grain risk funds came to 17.3 billion yuan, accounting for 57 percent of all grain risk funds.

Xiang went on to say that investment in science and education was gradually increased and the strategy of developing the country through science and education was effectively implemented. Expenditures for education from the central budget for 2001 totaled 21.3 billion yuan.

As required by the central government, the proportion of educational spending to total expenditures in the central budget should be increased by one percentage point each year from 1998 to 2002, calculated in comparable terms. This required allocation of an additional 4.1 billion yuan for education in the central budget in 2001.

During the same year, one billion yuan from the central budget was used to implement the second phase of the state program to make compulsory education universal throughout poverty-stricken areas. A total of 32 counties (cities, districts) met state standards for making nine-year compulsory education basically universal and basically eliminating illiteracy among young and middle-aged people.

For the program to renovate primary and secondary school buildings in poor condition in rural areas, special subsidies totaling 2.6 billion yuan were granted to local governments to renovate 17 million square meters of school buildings.

Expenses for science and technology from the central budget in 2001 totaled 37.3 billion yuan, up 29.5 percent over that of the previous year. This figure includes 1.6 billion yuan specially for the state natural sciences fund, 600 million yuan specially for key state basic research programs, 2.5 billion yuan of special funding for the state's March 1986 High-Tech Program and 2.3 billion yuan for the knowledge innovation pilot program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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