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)