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A deputy from Shanghai Municipality to the on-gong first session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) said Saturday that if his fellow Chinese farmers are not relatively affluent, it is out of the question to build a well-off society in the country.
Without modernization in its rural areas, China cannot materialize its modernization and, without stability in the countryside, it cannot have its overall stability, elucidated Li Jinsheng from the largest metropolis in east China, during a panel discussion at the ongoing first session of the 10th NPC in Beijing.
Briefing candidly to leading officials from central authorities concerning a couple of problems existing in the countryside, he said greater importance has to be attached to the issues facing farmers economic development in rural areas.
Although the Party Central Committee and State Council have resorted to some related prompt, viable measures, he acknowledged, the livelihood of rural population is relatively low and the peasant farmers have so far not received adequate treatment as urbanites in term of basic infrastructure and other facilities.
Therefore, Li suggested, among other proposals, the work in three aspects have to be done well, namely, in setting up a social security system to help the needy in the rural areas, in transferring surplus rural laborers to the secondary and tertiary industries, and in building more welfare utilities for farmers.
Li, a NPC deputy who has spent much time in the villages, noted that strenuous efforts have to be made for instituting a social security system to guarantee the adequate living standards of the rural needy. "The most needy in rural areas, " he added, "are those who have to be hospitalized with serious illnesses."
As part of the effort to help needy farmers turn relatively affluent, surplus rural laborers are required to shift to the secondary and tertiary businesses, he said. And substantial efforts have to be made to build more roads and further improve other infrastructure facilities.
Meanwhile, the mix of farm crops requires adjustment in compliance with volatile market changes, and greenhouse farming should be introduced on a broader scale whereas acreages of rice, wheat and other grain crops appropriately reduced, the NPC deputy said.
(People's Daily March 10, 2003)
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