Stable Rural Policy Stressed by Central Conference

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 09, 2003

Stable Rural Policy Stressed by Central Conference

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China will strive harder to develop rural areas by conducting a stable rural policy and continuing to extend rural reform, according to a two-day central conference on rural work that ended Wednesday.

The conference attended by leaders of the Communist Party of china and the central government and local officials in charge of rural work urged efforts to maintain a stable policy toward rural development with the key task of ensuring farmers' long-term legal land-use rights.

Farmers should be considered the main body of the market and the land contract relationship should be respected, the conference stressed.

The conference called for further reform of taxes and charges in rural areas, and reform of grain purchasing and marketing systems. Effective methods to subsidize agriculture and farmers were also called for. The country has tried to support agriculture, especially the main food producing zone.

Officials have also set the guiding principle for the development of agriculture in the coming year, by focusing on bringing more benefits to farmers and narrowing the income gap between rural and urban areas.

A four-point proposal for developing agriculture in China, with the top priority given to deepening reform in rural areas was set.

Under the new guide the Chinese government will continue to grant farmers "long-term '' land-use rights, while officials at all levels were urged to pay more attention to the three agriculture-related issues-- the countryside, farmers and farming.

Under the working plan, more rural residents can this year expect to be freed from the financial burdens imposed by unreasonable administrative charges as top officials promised to further spread the fees-to-tax reform, aimed at cutting a string of administrative charges which have been levied in the countryside.

Farmers will benefit from easier access to bank loans, stronger government subsidies and by being much better informed about where to sell their produce.

Optimizing agricultural structures and expanding areas of rural economic development were urged at the two-day central rural work conference.

The conference called on all local governments and departments to reform agriculture structures and to develop safe and environment-friendly agriculture with high quality, yields and efficiency.

Increasing farmers' incomes and agricultural modernization were the two basic aims of rural policy, according to the conference, which stressed the promotion of efficient production and concentration on dominant production zones.

The conference proposed that China further improve grassroots democracy in rural areas.

The Party Central Committee and the State Council decided to increase investment in the sectors of education, health and culture in rural areas, with the aim of improving the living conditions of farmers. More schools and village hospitals in rural areas will be built in the near future.

Addressing the meeting, Hu Jintao, secretary-general of the CPC Central Committee, said these goals will help China attain its cherished dream of building a 'xiaokang' society, which means well-off in the broadest of senses, not only materially, but socially.

"If the benefits of 'xiaokang' can not be attained by rural people, China will fail to live up to its dream of a 'xiaokang' society," said Hu.

In the first half of last year, per capita income of urban residents was 3,942 yuan (US$476), 17.5 per cent up on the same period of the previous year, while the income of rural residents was 1,123 yuan (US$135.6), only a 5.9 per cent increase, according to the latest data.

According to official statistics, the average urban income was 1.7 times as much as the rural income in 1984. By 1999 it was 2.65 times.

To close the economic gap, top officials agreed Wednesday to deepen the ongoing reforms on the grain distribution system, further restructure the agricultural sector and regulate agricultural business, by making it more efficient and structured.

They said the transfer of surplus rural workers to urban areas is another important way to increase rural incomes. Such migrant workers could find employment in township enterprises or the rapidly growing service sectors of cities.Ways to stimulate rural consumption, much lower than that of city dwellers, also needs to be encouraged.

China's rural areas are the largest untapped markets in the nation and home to the vast majority of the nation's population, the officials highlighted.

Such stimulus would help promote the nation's key economic policy of expanding domestic demand, imperative to sustaining the national economy on a fast and healthy track, they said.

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