China will establish subsistence allowances for rural poor all
around the country, according to the central agricultural meeting
closed Saturday.
This is the first time for the Chinese government to raise the
goal of establishing a national subsistence allowances system for
rural poor since the decision of the Communist Party of China on
building up socialist harmonious society issued last month proposed
establishing minimum living standard for rural poor step by
step.
According to the meeting, the central budget will invest more in
agriculture and rural area next year to accelerate the social
development of the rural areas.
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China will "explore a social security system covering both urban
and rural people and build up subsistence allowances for rural poor
all around the country", said the meeting.
Some developed regions of China such as south China's Guangdong and east China's Zhejiang provinces have established a
subsistence allowances system for rural poor since 1997.
According to statistics, among all 2,862 counties of the
country, over 2,000 have established minimum living standard for
rural poor with 9.85 million having got subsistence allowances,
accounting for 42 percent of the total number of the rural
poor.
The central budget will enhance support in transfer payments to
establish subsistence allowances for rural poor in more regions,
said Jin Renqing, Minister of Finance recently.
Experts said that establishing subsistence allowance system for
rural poor is an important measure to reduce rural and urban living
gap and to guarantee the basic living rights of farmers.
The move is deemed as the key to establishing and improving
social security system in the rural areas.
Data from the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty
Alleviation and Development show that with a standard of annual per
capita income lower than 683 yuan (US$87.6), China has 23.65
million rural poor by the end of 2005, 5.62 million less than
2001.
China appropriated nearly 40 billion yuan annually in poverty
alleviation in recent years, with the special fund for poverty
reduction from the central budget reaching 13.4 billion yuan this
year.
(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2006)