CPC Central Committee Outlines Agricultural, Industrial Goals

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has outlined the nation's goals of consolidating and strengthening the primary status of agriculture and accelerating re-organization and restructuring of industry for the next five years.

According to the Proposal of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) for National Economic and Social Development released Tuesday in Beijing, strengthening the position of agriculture is an important part of economic restructuring and the basis for maintaining economic growth and social stability.

The proposal said that great importance should be attached to preserving and expanding the capacity of grain production, building stable bases of grain production, developing a grain security system that is compatible with the specific conditions of China and the requirements of a socialist market economy and guaranteeing the essential balance between demand and supply of grain.

The proposal called for the country to be fully aware of the importance and hardship of the development of agriculture, always put the development of agriculture as the top priority in economic growth and guarantee sustainable, stable development of agriculture on the basis of improving overall quality and efficiency.

According to the proposal, every possible means should be adopted to increase the income of farmers because this concerns both the development of agriculture and rural areas and the development of the economy as a whole.

It called for greater efforts to be made in restructuring the agricultural sector, actively expanding the sources for the increase of farmers' income, stepping up support and protection of the farming sector, effectively slashing the burdens of farmers and securing the sustainable increase of the income of farmers. The proposal pointed out that the restructuring of agriculture and the rural economy should be market-oriented, based on scientific and technological advances and persistent in exploring a new broadness and depth of production growth.

It said that great efforts should be made to push forward the development of a universal service system in rural areas, with the supply of technological and information services as the focal point.

Support should be given to the innovation and spread of farming technologies so as to make advanced, practical technologies accessible to more farmer's, according to the proposal.

The establishment of the systems of market information about farm produce, food quarantine and quality standards should be accelerated to guide the farmers to turn out quality farm produces in line with market demand.

The proposal said that deepening rural reform is the fundamental measure to preserve and promote the motivation of farmers. It said that the development of a legal framework guaranteeing the land system in rural areas should be accelerated so as to maintain the dual management system that encompasses unified and independent management and is based on household contract.

It said that on the basis of pilot reforms in certain areas, the reform of replacing arbitrary fees imposed by administrative authorities with taxes should be accelerated in the rural areas.

At the same time, the reform of government structure at township level should be carried out in an active and proper way.

With industrialization as a major way for modernization of agriculture, the country should encourage and support the enterprises that process and sell farm produce to give farmers access to the market so as to develop a system of profit-sharing and risk diversification.

According to the proposal, the country should increase input in agriculture and rural areas through various channels, encourage rural residents to participate in capital construction of farmland, accelerate construction of roads, power grids, flow water pipelines, telecommunications facilities and other infrastructures in rural areas and improve the conditions of production, living and market in rural areas.

The proposal noted that re-organization and renovation of industrial enterprises and optimization of the industrial structure are imperative tasks of economic restructuring and extremely important to the sustainable growth of the economy. Therefore, the overall quality and competitiveness of the industrial sector should be improved.

It said that the industrial sector should effectively change the style of growth, enhance the capabilities of technological innovation, adopt new and high technologies and accelerate upgrading of conventional industries.

The proposal urged the closure of factories and mines that turn out products of poor quality, waste resources, cause serious pollution, or lack safety, and the dismantling of outdated equipment and technology.

It said that enterprises should go bankrupt if they suffer losses for a long time, have debts larger than assets and have no means to reverse the losses.

According to the proposal, acceleration of re-organization of industrial enterprises should be in line with the principles of specialized division and economies of scale. The country should form a group of large companies and enterprise groups that have their own intellectual property rights, strong core businesses and powerful flagship entities.

It said that the country should actively facilitate the growth of medium- and small-sized companies, especially scientific and technological companies.

The re-organization and restructuring of the industrial sector should be conducted in accordance with the rule of market. The state should properly guide the orientation of investment so as to avoid construction of redundant projects and duplication, according to the proposal.

Because China has abundant human resources, the country should pay attention to the development of labor-intensive industries, according to the proposal.

It said that the country should insist on developing its own technological innovations as well as introducing technologies from other countries and pay attention to the balance between the feasibility and advancement of technologies.



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