No one in China should live in dire poverty by 2010, members to
the National Committee of the Chinese People's Consultative
Conference (CPPCC) said yesterday.
"I am confident that we can meet this target by 2010," Chen
Yaobang, a former official in the agriculture and forestry
ministries, said. "By a simple calculation, we can see that if each
person gets 300 yuan from the government, then we only need 6
billion yuan to solve the problem of people in dire poverty."
The number of Chinese living in dire poverty, earning below a
638 yuan (US$82) a year, dropped by 2.78 million in 2006, according
to official figures. Those considered to be earning low income,
below 958 yuan (US$123), fell by 5.17 million.
A report submitted by the Ministry of Finance to the Fifth
Session of the 10th National People's Congress, said China will
earmark 391.7 billion yuan (US$50.54 billion) on rural expenditure,
an increase of 15.3 percent.
However, there are still many who need help, with 21.48 million
people still in dire poverty and 35.5 million in the low-income
basket, Zhang Baowen, vice-minister of agriculture, said.
This year, according to Zhang, the government has four
initiatives to help China's "Three No" farmers.
Those with no job, no land and no social security will be
targets of a promise in Premier Wen Jiaba's work report to set up a
minimum cost of living allowance for the country's most
disadvantaged rural residents.
"A trial project has already been conducted in the eastern
provinces and rich provinces, which has been quite successful,"
Chen Yaobang said, adding this year's focus should be on the
western and central areas.
And Wan Zhibao, former director of the State Forestry
Administration, said the State Council would soon map out plans to
develop mountainous regions.
According to Justin Lin Yifu, vice-chairman of the Committee for
Economic for Economic Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee, the
key issue for the new socialist countryside is to improve farmers'
incomes, which could be achieved by developing modernized
agriculture and non-agriculture business.
"But the construction of the 'new socialist countryside', a move
aiming to narrow China's yawning urban-rural wealth gap, should not
be misunderstood as the construction of new villages," Lin
said.
Some village heads, for instance, after visiting Huaxi Village
in east China's Jiangsu Province, were impressed by its pretty
buildings and took it for granted that the new building was a
symbol for the "new socialist countryside", Lin said.
In Huaxi, the average annual villager income is 41.8 times that
of the country's farmers in 2004. It is regarded as the model for
the new countryside concept.
"That kind of misunderstanding will increase farmers' financial
burden and impair their interests," Lin said.
(China Daily March 7, 2007)