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A senior government official said Monday that China will carry out a series of reforms to streamline government agencies in rural areas, as part of the nationwide effort to alleviate farmers' economic burden.
Minister of Agriculture Du Qinglin said that some township-level agencies will be merged while the others will be downsized.
He said that currently the gap between rural and urban residents is quite big, with the ratio of average incomes between urban and rural residents standing at 3.1: to 1 in 2002. "The actual gap may be bigger," the minister added.
He said that the Chinese government is very much concerned about this problem and has adopted measures to promote agricultural and rural development.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2003)
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