President Hu Jintao has said the increase of farmers' income and
the development of agriculture are essential for the sustainable
and coordinated development of the national economy and social
stability.
The president urged Communist Party committees and governments
at all levels to recognize the importance and the urgency of
solving these issues.
Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China (CPC), made the calls during his December
12 to 17 inspection tour in Shandong
and Henan
provinces, two of the country's major grain-producing areas.
The tour involved the rural areas of the cities of Liaocheng and
Heze in Shandong, east China, and rural areas of Shangqiu and
Kaifeng cities in Henan, central China.
The president visited rural families affected by floods earlier
this year, and asked about their difficulties.
He told local governments to provide enough food and clothes and
adequate shelter to flood victims, and to help with rehabilitation
projects and preparations for spring planting.
The president also talked with farmers and local officials on
ways to raise their income, saying improved standards of rural
living were a priority in agricultural and rural work for the Party
and governments at all levels.
Hu said efforts were needed to promote strategic restructuring
of agriculture and the rural economy, and facilitate the
industrialization of farming, boost investment in agriculture and
rural development, continue the tax reform in rural areas, and move
to raise farming income, especially among grain growers.
Greater efforts should be made to help surplus rural laborers
find jobs in cities, while removing discriminatory regulations and
unreasonable charges for migrant workers, Hu said.
He went on to call for nationwide investigations of the rampant
practice of delaying payments of hard-earned wages to migrant
workers, saying workers should be paid for all their work in the
past year before the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday next month.
Companies deliberately delaying payment or cutting wages, and
those responsible, should be punished according to law, while
additional efforts were needed to improve laws and regulations to
ensure the problem would no longer occur, said the president.
Hu said China should formulate the most stringent system in the
world to protect farmland from being depleted for excessive
industrial development, and illegal use of farmland for
non-agricultural development should be halted.
He also reiterated the need to increase government investment in
agriculture and support for major grain-producing areas, encourage
the use of agricultural technology and the application of
agriculture-related techniques, reduce farming costs, and deepen
the reform of the grain distribution system.
(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2003)