A senior official said Saturday that China will reinforce its efforts in four aspects to narrow the gap between rural and urban areas.
Wang Chunzheng, vice minister of the State Development Planning Commission, told a press conference that the disparity of development between rural and urban areas is a critical issue that China has to face in its economic and social development, adding that solving the issue will have to go through a fairly arduous procedure.
This year the government will make efforts in four aspects to narrow the gap:
Restructuring agricultural products in accordance with market demand;
Carrying out taxing and fee charging reforms in the whole country to alleviate farmers' financial burden;
Investing more in rural infrastructure construction to improve farmers' production and living conditions; and
Continuing to push forward the drive of urbanization to create conditions for surplus rural labor force to find jobs in towns and cities.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2003)
