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Members of China's top advisory body voiced their views on problems urgently in need of solution as they met at another plenum Tuesday afternoon. The following are the main points of their views:
-- Zhang Junjiu, representing the All-China Federation of Trade Unions:
Government departments should work in unison to protect the legitimate rights and interests of farmer-workers in cities so that they can benefit from the country's reform and opening up.
There are about 100 million farmers working in cities, mostly in boom towns in east and south China, and their total income exceeds 500 billion yuan (US$60 billion), accounting for one third of the cash income of rural households, he said.
-- Sun Jiye, representing the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang:
Farmers should be treated the same as urbanites in terms of household registration in order to ensure their rights to move freely; a unified labor market and tax system should be established for rural and urban areas; the government should commit more financial resources to improving rural public infrastructure, the farmers' living standards and the rural social security network.
-- Xiao Zhuoji representing the social and law committee of the advisory body's national committee:
The key to narrowing the income gap between the rich and the poor is to increase the income of those who earn less but not to reduce the income of those who earn more.
Some 20 percent of the rich people in China possess 66 percent of the total financial assets, and 20 percent of urban low-income groups possess only 1.3 percent, according to the leading economist.
-- Mo Wenxiu representing the All-China Women's Federation:
Governments at all levels should bias toward women in their employment and reemployment projects by providing them with more training and related services, and a sound legal system should be established to guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of women workers.
The major problems concerning women include a declining employment rate, less job opportunities for laid-off women workers and female college graduates, difficulties in launching their own businesses and unequal pay.
-- Wang Ruipu, former vice president of China Population Society:
The government must be well aware of the grave situation of unemployment resulting from the rapid annual growth of labor force and seek a long-term solution.
-- Zuo Huanchen representing the Central Committee of Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party:
Governments at all levels must remove all regional blockades and allow free flow of commodities, service, capital goods providers and other enterprises in order to facilitate the establishment of a unified and open national market.
-- Li Jinyou representing the nationalities and religious affairs committee of the top advisory body's national committee:
The government should intensify efforts to improve education among people of various minority nationalities and in their communities to relieve them from poverty. There are 13.22 million minority people living in dire poverty and 33.17 million others in the low-income group.
-- Li Jinming representing Zhejiang provincial committee of the national advisory body:
Elimination of corruption among officials requires a series of strong mechanisms, including education, limitation of powers, standardization of code of conduct, establishment of quantitative and qualitative performance assessment standards and indicator system and impartial inner-Party supervision.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2004)
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