Chinese experts believed that the newly-issued "No. 1 Document"
by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council will not only
improve farmers' income, but ensure the safety of their land
property and the social status of rural migrant workers in
cities.
Dang Guoying, research fellow with the Institute of Rural
Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in
Monday's Beijing News newspaper that there are eight
breakthroughs in the newly-issued document on agriculture, farmer
and rural work by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China and the State Council, China's central government.
Firstly, the government will slash agricultural tax rates by one
percentage point this year and abolish taxes on special farm
produce, except tobacco crops.
"It demonstrates that the central government is encouraging
farmers to plant grains and it is also a significant step in the
direction of unifying the urban and rural tax standards," said
Dang.
Secondly, resources will be channeled to help with the
development of regions specializing in production of key
high-quality grains.
About 70 percent of China's grain output is produced in what the
document calls the country's "regions specializing in the
production of key high-quality grains", such as the three provinces
in northeast China, the plains along middle and lower reaches of
the Yangtze River and Huabei Plain in north China.
"Therefore, as long as the grain output in those major
grain-generating regions is stable, the whole country would not be
trapped in the panic of grain shortage," Dang said.
The document said the government will increase subsidies to
spread high-quality grain seeds and subsidize farmers in those
regions to purchase agricultural equipment.
Thirdly, up to 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) will be
earmarked from the country's grain venture fund which is currently
worth 30.2 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion), in a bid to directly
subsidize farmers to set off their loss caused by the low grain
price in the market.
Fourthly, the document said "rural migrant workers are an
important part of China's worker class". The social status of rural
migrant workers was for the first time enshrined in the document
issued by the CPC Central Committee.
Nowadays, about 46.5 percent of employees in industry were
originally rural labors, which demonstrates that China's social
structure and employment structure are undergoing dramatic changes,
said Dang.
In the future, rural migrant workers will be given more
occupational training in cities, in an effort to make them more
competitive in the labor market.
Fifthly, to encourage the development of township enterprises.
China's township enterprises have absorbed 130 million rural
laborers since the implementation of the reform and opening-up
policy more than two decades ago.
The document stressed that as long as the township enterprises
do not damage the ecological environment and are in line with the
government's safety production requirements, they should be
encouraged to further develop.
Sixthly, reform on land requisition will be launched to
safeguard farmer's land property, according to the document.
Over recent years, blind land requisition for urbanization or
real estate development has severely hurt farmer's interests, Dang
said.
Seventhly, financial organizations at county level or below have
duties to earmark a certain proportion of capital for the local
grain production, the document said.
Eighthly, grassroots administrative organizations will be
streamlined to alleviate the financial burden of farmers, the
document said.
The document on agriculture, farmer and rural work released by
the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Sunday, is the
sixth such document issued by the CPC Central Committee since China
implemented agricultural reform in 1978. The previous five
documents were all released in the 1980s.
"The promulgation of the document demonstrates that the new
government pays great attention to the gap between urban and rural
incomes and intends to rejuvenate its stagnant agriculture in the
near future," said Dang.
(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2004)