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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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