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Some Beijing analysts believe the plenary session of the CPC Central Committee beginning Sunday will focus on how to improve living standards for the country's low-income citizens and poor population.

The Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will convene in Beijing from Oct. 8 to 11 with the theme of building a harmonious socialist society.

Analysts said the meeting may spawn research on safeguarding social equality, narrowing the yawning wealth gap and expanding employment, and may decide to carry out a series of important reforms in sectors like health care, education and social security, so as to let low-income groups and poor people enjoy the achievements of the country's reform and development.

Yan Shuhan, director of the scientific socialism department of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said a key item on the CPC Central Committee agenda is to counter the impact of factors of disharmony.

He said that, in the future, the Chinese government will not only encourage citizens to get rich by diligent work and through legal channels, but also step up protection of low-income and poverty-stricken groups.

Over the past 20 years, China's income gap has widened dramatically. In 2005, the per capita income ratio between urban citizens and rural residents was 3.22 to 1.

The country's Gini coefficient, an international measurement of income disparity, is estimated to have exceeded the danger level of 0.4. The country's richest 10 percent of families possess more than 40 percent of the nation's wealth, while the poorest 10 percent only have two percent.

The regional income gap is also yawning, with the per capita GDP of the country's most wealthy province over 10 times greater than that of the poorest province.

"The excessive wealth gap is one of the principal disharmonious factors in Chinese society. To build a harmonious socialist society, we must pay more attention to low-income citizens and poor populations," said Ding Yuanzhu, research fellow of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the State Development and Reform Commission.

Some analysts say China will speed up the establishment of a social security system with wider coverage and relatively lower benefits. Farmers may be covered by the system and a new rural cooperative medical system will be introduced in rural areas.

At the same time, urban community construction will be pushed forward. Urban poor families may receive subsidies for their children's education and for health care. Charges for water, electricity, gas and transportation may be reduced for them.

China's abject poor, whose per capita annual income is less than 85 U.S. dollars, a poverty line set by government, shrank from 125 million to 23.65 million in the 1985 to 2005 period. Most of them live in rural areas and a large proportion of them are disabled, ill or live in adverse conditions.

"These 23 million needy people are in great need of direct government assistance. Promoting the cause of rural social welfare will inevitably be a topic for the plenary session of the CPC Central Committee," said Ding.

While China has an impressive record of pulling people out of poverty, another issue that needs to be tackled is reducing inequality of opportunity. An efficient way to promote equality of opportunity is to invest more in education, said an economist with the Asian Development Bank.

Currently, China's investment in education accounts for three percent of its GDP, lower than the world average level of five percent GDP.

Analysts said in future, government may promote compulsory education not only in rural areas, but in some well-developed cities.

They said the plenary session might lead the government to invest more in public facilities and public services, and less in market-oriented projects.

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2006)