China's parliament started its annual full session Monday morning with
Premier Wen Jiabao announcing a series of measures to promote social harmony.
"Social harmony and stability as well as a better life are the aspiration of
all the people and an important goal for the work of the government," Wen said,
when delivering a work report to 2,890 lawmakers present at the Fifth Session of
the Ten National People' s Congress (NPC).
In his 36-page report, Wen extolled the government's "great achievements" in
2006, but also admitted that "a number of serious problems affecting the
people's interests have not been properly addressed" and that "life remains
difficult for many low-income people".
China's rapid economic growth has brought nearly 200 million people out of
poverty over the past two decades, but the unbalanced development has also left
millions of the poor struggling in agony with rising educational, medical and
housing cost.
Wen promised in his report that the government will invest heavily this year
to address problems concerning people's daily lives, especially in the rural
areas.
"This year, we will completely stop collecting tuition and miscellaneous fees
from all rural students receiving compulsory education," Wen announced, adding
that the policy will ease the financial burden of 150 million rural families
with children attending primary or middle schools.
Wen also announced an ambitious plan to set up "a nationwide basic minimum
cost of living allowance system" for the rural residents, who traditionally had
no access to social security coverage.
"This is another major measure in the work to resolve
issues related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers and build a harmonious
society," he said.
Other major spending plans include a 201.9 billion yuan investment from the
central government to improve the social security network, and a 10.1 billion
yuan subsidy from the central budget to expand the coverage of a cooperative
medicare system to 80 percent of China's rural areas.
In response to the mounting public complaints about a widening wealth gap,
Wen promised that the government will take measures to increase people's
incomes, especially those with low and middle incomes.
Official statistics show that urban residents' annual average income is three
times higher than that of the rural residents. The former reached 11,759 yuan in
2006, while the latter stood at a mere 3,587 yuan.
Outlining the government's major tasks in 2007, the last year of its
five-year term, Wen said the government expects to keep the economy growth at
about eight percent, based on structural improvement, reduced consumption of
energy and better environmental protection.
Last year, China failed to reach its pollution control targets, and experts
attributed the failure to a faster-than-expected 10.7 percent GDP growth and
higher energy consumption.
Listing a series of measures to cut energy consumption, Wen promised to the
lawmakers that the government will make greater efforts in energy saving,
environmental protection and the protection of arable land so as to change the
country's economic growth pattern.
In his six-part report, the premier also briefed the lawmakers about the
government's plan on economic and financial reforms and measures to improve
governance.
Monday's session was chaired by Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Wu
Bangguo.
Top Party and state leaders Hu Jintao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju,
Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan were present when the session opened at
9:00 a.m. Beijing time.
During the 11.5-day session, NPC deputies will also deliberate on two major
law drafts -- a draft property law which will grant equal protection to public
and private properties, and the draft of a unified corporate tax law which
levies equal taxation for domestic and overseas-funded
companies.
