Senior Beijing government officials vowed to speed up the integration between the capital's urban and rural areas in the coming five years, but some local legislators advised the government to give more careful consideration to the issue.

Beijing Municipal Rural Work Commission Director Li Jinshan interpreted the integration as urbanization of the countryside and industrialization of agriculture in his report to the city's top legislative body - the Beijing Municipal People's Congress (BMPC) Standing Committee. The report was discussed yesterday.

"I hope the government could define the urban-rural integration more clearly," said Guo Qili, a member of the BMPC Standing Committee at yesterday's group discussion.

Guo said she would not like to see high buildings appear in Beijing's suburbs, as "the areas would lose their rural characteristics."

BMPC Standing Committee member Hu Jun pointed out that education and living standards, as well as mass transportation, should be given greater importance in Beijing's suburbs, instead of only making the suburbs same or similar to urban areas.

Meanwhile, BMPC Standing Committee members agreed with the municipal government in accelerating the construction of infrastructure and social security systems in Beijing's suburbs, which were fixed by the local government earlier this year to replace what was previously "countryside."

It is expected to take less than one hour to get from the centre of 10 districts and counties in Beijing's suburbs to the city's downtown area in five years, according to director Li.

Systems for minimum living standards have been established in the suburbs. The current average income among the 14 suburb districts and counties in Beijing is 1,256 yuan (US$152) per farmer per year.

(China Daily September 5, 2003)