(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-12 18:21

Income of Rural Residents to Double

The country had set a goal to double the per-capita disposable income of rural residents by 2020 from the 2008 level.

The goal was part of the decision made at the close of the CPC session, which focused on issues concerning rural reform and development.

Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, makes a work report at the third Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee which ended in Beijing on October 12, 2008. [Xinhua]

The government would also boost consumption of rural residents by a big margin and basically eliminate absolute poverty in rural areas by 2020, according to a communique issued on the plenum's conclusion.

Per-capita disposable income was recorded at 4,140 yuan ($605) in rural areas in 2007, a year-on-year gain of 9.5 percent in real terms. A rise of at least 6 percent was expected for 2008, as stated in the government annual report issued in March.

The rural population mired in absolute poverty was reduced to 15 million last year, down from 250 million in 1978.

Targets set at the plenum for rural reform and development till 2020 also included "improving the system of economic growth in the countryside and establishing a mechanism to integrate urban and rural areas in terms of economic growth and social development".

"The modernization of agriculture will advance with major progress, and agricultural productivity will be elevated to a higher level, with national grain security and product supplies guaranteed," said the communique.

The Central Comittee also agreed a goal to improve grassroots democracy in the countryside, and vowed to guarantee equal public services in rural areas, such as education opportunities for all rural residents and better medical services and subsistence support.

The plenum had gathered delegates to the 17th CPC National Congress who had been working on agriculture and rural development at grassroots levels, and experts and scholars on agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

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