On November 18, a government paper entitled The Research on
The Development of China's Productivity was published, which
sets out the "the five major issues to be considered in the
development of China's rural areas, namely, money, grain, farmland,
human resources and human rights".
On November 21, China Economic Times ran a report on
the paper, and highlighted key points made by Chen Xiwen, deputy
director of the Leading Group of Finance and Economy of the
Communist Party of China (CPC).
These are the main excerpts of that report:
The first issue relates to trying to increase farmers' incomes.
Chen said that it is very difficult to do this, which has a direct
impact on the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Chen added that the government has yet to find an efficient and
effective solution to the problem mainly because economic
development in urban and rural areas is vastly different.
Chen said: "It really is a big problem to solve on how to
develop the rural areas while making the progress greatly benefit
farmers."
The second issue relates to the security of China's grain. The
situation now is that production cannot meet demand, and at the
same time, there is less farmland to cultivate.
Chen said that there will come a time when China will have to
eat into its reserves, a threatening situation to be in. On the
other hand, the government does not want to be overly reliant on
imports.
The third issue is farmland, which includes the basic rights of
farmers and agricultural output.
More and more farmland is being cleared in the name of
urbanization and industrialization.
But what of the farmers? Farmers without lands cannot live. The
issue of "farmland" has connection with the stability of the rural
areas.
The fourth issue is that of human resources. The key points here
are further education for out-of-work farmers and building an
all-round affluent society.
Development of public health and education programs in the rural
areas must be accelerated if the objectives are to be
achieved.?
The last issue relates to protection of farmers' legal rights
while consolidating grass-root government in rural areas.
(China.org.cn by Wang Ke, November 23, 2005)