The central government will spend 391.7 billion yuan on
agriculture, rural areas and farmers this year, as it vows to
develop modern agriculture and promote the building of a new
countryside said Premier Wen Jiabao in a government work report
Monday.
"We will effectively shift the focus of state infrastructure
development and development of social programs to the countryside,”
Wen told 2,890 lawmakers at the opening meeting of the Fifth
Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), the top
legislature.
The allocations from the central government budget will total
391.7 billion yuan this year, an increase of 52 billion yuan over
last year and 94.2 billion yuan over the year of 2005.
Agriculture, as the base of the country's economy, remains weak,
and it is now more difficult than ever to steadily increase grain
production and keep rural incomes growing, Wen said.
The Study Times, a newspaper affiliated to the Party School of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, predicted
that China could face a 4.8 million ton grain shortage in 2010,
almost nine percent of the country's grain consumption.
Wen said this year's work related to agriculture, rural areas
and farmers will focus on accelerating the development of modern
agriculture and effectively promoting the building of a new
socialist countryside.
A central government document released late January said
developing modern agriculture is the top priority in building a new
socialist countryside.
China must strengthen government policy, funding, application of
science and technology, and reform to develop modern agriculture
and promote the building of a new countryside, the premier
said.
Despite serious natural disasters, China last year saw a rich
grain harvest with total output amounting to 497.45 billion
kilograms, 13.44 billion kilograms more than the year before.
The per capita net income for the 900 million rural residents
increased 7.4 percent to 3,587 yuan last year. Safe drinking water
was made available to another 28.97 million rural people and the
use of methane available to an additional 4.5 million rural
families.
The premier also said China will set up a nationwide basic
minimum cost of living allowance system this year for rural
residents, and the trial area of the new rural cooperative medical
care system will be expanded to cover over 80 percent of all
counties, county-level cities and city districts in China.
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2007)