X-2 Question: China's economic reform started from its rural areas. During the past 30 years, China launched three steps of reforms in rural regions. What is the focus of the comprehensive rural reform started in 2006? And how long will the reform last?

A: China is a large agricultural country. In the past 30 years, China launched three steps of important reforms in rural areas in succession. The first step is the operation system reform in rural areas starting in 1980, featured with household contracting operation. Through the reform, China established the basic economic system in its rural areas, ensuring farmers' rights of independent operation and production and laying the basis for market economy in countryside. The second step is the distribution system reform with fee-to-tax reform at the core. This step, starting in 1985, planned the integrative development in urban and rural areas and coordinated the distribution relations between the state and farmers. The third step is the comprehensive reform in rural areas which is being currently carried out. Reviewing the three steps, we can see that the fundamental purpose of the series of reform is to protect Chinese farmers' material profits, maintain farmers' legal rights and liberate and develop rural productive forces.

Starting in 2006, China nullified agricultural tax nationwide, indicating the formal startup of rural comprehensive reform. The emphasis is to further promote reforms in township governmental organs, compulsory education in rural areas and finance in towns and counties.

-- Efforts will be made in promoting reform for township governmental organs. Chinese Government will focus on changing government functions, stick to the principle of separating government functions from enterprises management, cut off overstaffed governmental organs to improve administrative efficiency and establish standard, coordinative, just, transparent, honest and efficient grassroots administrative system and operation mechanisms. Meanwhile, measures will be taken to actively, stably and rationally adjust township governmental organs, reform and integrate township institutions and reduce redundant staff. Within five years, the number of staff in township governmental organs will be reduced.

-- The core of rural compulsory education reform is to implement the guarantee mechanism of education funds. This step of reform means to ensure the funds for rural education, upgrade education quality and carry out rural compulsory education substantially, so as to realize the goal of every child in rural areas can be educated and afford to be educated.

-- Financial reform for towns and counties is the hardest part. In this regard, we will put our focus on increasing grassroots finance guarantee, and constantly increase input to agriculture sectors and rural areas. China's newly added funds for education, health and culture will mainly go to the rural areas. Meanwhile, the transfer payment system will be further improved and special subsidy will be standardized to continue to promote the financial management system and mode reform featured with province directly controlling county's finance and county managing the funds used by town, thus to increase the grassroots governments' ability to carry out their duties and supply public services.

Promoting rural comprehensive reform is an important reform of China's New Countryside Construction Program, involving not only economic realm, but also political, social and cultural fields. It is an important institutional renovation and social reform. China will, on the basis of pilot projects, fully promote the reform to all rural areas nationwide and try to complete the reform within five years. The goal of the reform is to establish effective rural administrative system and operation system, public financial system covering rural and urban areas, rural compulsory education system with input from governments in order to reduce farmers' burden and increase their incomes, promote the healthy development of rural public welfares and fully push forward the economic and social development in rural areas, in light with the requirements of consolidating fee-to-tax reform in rural areas and perfecting socialism market economy

(China.org.cn)