No.1 central document focuses on rural issues for 5th year(1)

2008-03-03 12:34:39 [ Big Normal Small ]    　Comment

China promulgated Wednesday its first document for this year, calling for greater efforts to address rural problems when the nation, with a rural population of 900 million, is combating mounting inflationary pressure and striving for sustained, rapid and healthy economic growth.

The first document, issued by the central committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council every year, is dubbed the No.1 central document. This is the fifth year in a row in which the No. 1 central document focused on rural problems. The keynote for this year is consolidating the foundation of agriculture.

In the previous four No. 1 documents, the key phrases were increasing farmers' income (2004), improving agricultural production capacity (2005), pushing forward the "new countryside" scheme (2006) and developing modern agriculture (2007).

China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 4.8 percent last year, with the inflation indicator hitting an 11-year-high of 6.9 percent in November, well above the government target of 3 percent.

Since food has a weighting of 32.74 percent in the CPI, the stable supply of such commodities, farm produce in particular, will be a decisive factor behind China's efforts to curb inflation.

China harvested 500 billion kilograms of grain in 2007, achieving production growth for the fourth year in a row. However, Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai said that output failed to meet domestic demand for the year.

Official statistics show that over the past decade, China's population increased by 90.59 million, but per-capita grain supply decreased from 412 kg in 1996 to 378 kg in 2006. Meanwhile, 210 million of the 900 million rural population began to work for urban and township enterprises. This shift meant fewer people who produce grain and more people who only consume.

Under these circumstances, the key to ensuring food supplies lies in endeavors to consolidate the base of agriculture.

　　FORTIFYING BASE OF AGRICULTURE

The No. 1 central document ordered that an enduring mechanism for consolidating the base of agriculture should be quickly developed; great importance should be attached to grain production, and supply and demand for major farm products should be balanced with product safety guaranteed.

To achieve these goals, the document stressed that any increased spending on agriculture this year should be clearly higher than last year, the increase in fixed-asset investment in rural areas should exceed the year-earlier level and farm subsidies should be raised.

Observers here said that given continuous, substantial growth in tax revenues, China was financially powerful enough to let industry support agriculture and cities support rural areas.

According to Han Jun, head of the rural department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, in 2007 China injected 42.7 billion yuan (5.9 billion U.S. dollars) into rural areas as direct subsidies for grain production and the purchase of agricultural inputs, up 63 percent from 2006.

Last year also saw the central government spend 36 billion yuan, including money raised through treasury bonds, on improving living and production conditions in rural areas. The total included 30 billion yuan on road construction, water and electricity supplies.

Another 1 billion yuan went to small irrigation projects and 3.2 billion yuan to revamping reservoirs.

SEEKING WAYS TO INTEGRATE URBAN WITH RURAL AREAS

Observers believed the integration of urban and rural areas would be the ultimate solution to yawning disparities between both regions and their people.

An increase in farm incomes has for years remained at the top of government concerns.

There is still an impoverished rural population of just over 20million, even though it dropped from more than 250 million some three decades ago.

Related: