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Premier Urges Boosting Agriculture, Farmers' Income
Premier Zhu Rongji said Monday that the government must put it on top agenda to strengthen agriculture as the country's economic foundation and increase the income of farmers in the next five years.
The premier made the call at the opening of the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), when he was delivering a report on the Outline of the Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2001-2005).
Accelerating restructuring of agricultural production and the development of the rural economy is the fundamental way to improve economic returns in agriculture and increase farmers' income, the premier said.
While effectively protecting cultivated land and stabilizing grain production capacities, China needs to restructure the patterns of farming, focusing on improving strains, quality and economic returns.
Great efforts need to be exerted to promote the industrial management of agricultural production, to support leading enterprises, and to spread the practice of farmers working with companies or producing crops on a contract basis, Zhu said.
"We need to develop industries for processing, storing and transporting agricultural products and keeping them fresh in order to gain better returns from intensive processing of agricultural products," he said.
Small towns and cities need to be expanded, and steady progress needs to be made in urbanization in order to increase job opportunities and sources of income for farmers, he noted. "In restructuring agriculture, we need to proceed in the light of local conditions and follow the principles governing the development of the market, and we need to protect farmers' right to independence in production and operation and refrain from pressure and coercion," he said.
The premier called for actively promoting reforms in rural areas. While keeping the system of stable, long-term land contracts as a foundation, localities where conditions permit should be encouraged to explore a land operation rights transfer system, he said.
Zhu went on to say that the system of administrative fees and taxes in rural areas needs to be reformed by raising the current rates of agricultural tax and special agricultural product tax where it is appropriate, and at the same time abolishing all administrative fees imposed exclusively on farmers, such as contributions to township and village public accumulation funds.
This is a sound policy for safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of farmers and reducing their burden, he stressed.
As a result of the reform of taxes and administrative fees, it will be necessary to decrease the number of administrative bodies and employees in towns and townships, and reduce the number of village and group functionaries receiving government subsidies, he said.
China needs to continue to deepen financial reform in rural areas and actively seek a financial system that helps stimulate rural economic development, according to the premier. The Agricultural Bank of China and other financial institutions should also give more support to agriculture and the rural economy, he said.
Zhu urged all localities to step up the construction of agricultural and rural infrastructure. More investments need to be made to accelerate the harnessing of big rivers and lakes, he said,
stressing that no time should be lost in constructing pivotal projects on major rivers and reinforcing decaying reservoirs to improve their flood-control, flow-management and storage capabilities.
China needs to increase the construction of power grids, telecommunications, radio and television installations, roads and water supply facilities in rural areas to improve production, living and marketing conditions there.
On continuing to fight poverty in rural areas, the premier said that although the seven-year national program (1994-2000) to help 80 million people out of poverty has been basically fulfilled, it will be an arduous task for a long time to bring about a fundamental change for the better in poverty-stricken areas.
"Priority needs to be given in our anti-poverty endeavor to ethnic minority areas in central and western China, the old revolutionary base areas, border areas and destitute areas," Zhu said. Assistance to the poor needs to continue to be development-oriented, he added.
He said that more funds need to be put into anti-poverty efforts in every possible way. "We need to expand the scale of programs that provide jobs as a form of relief and support efforts in poverty-stricken areas to improve the infrastructure there," he noted.
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