The abolishment was completed after relevant departments under the State Council took the suggestions of an law-enforcement panel of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, China's top legislative body. Four months ago, the panel raised the issue to the State Council departments and put forward nine proposals after looking into the implementation of the Township Enterprise Law.

At a meeting Wednesday, eight ministries reported their latest developments in implementing the proposals from the NPC Standing Committee.

"The move indicates that China's top legislative body is strengthening supervision over law-enforcement and paying more attention to government feedback and effects of the supervisory efforts," said Gao Dezhan, chairman of the NPC Agriculture and Rural Work Committee.

The State Economic and Trade Commission pledged to ensure that all illegal fees and fines imposed on rural enterprises be removed by the end of next June.

The State Administration of Taxation has decided to grant tax exemption to some key businesses engaged in farming and farm product processing.

Tax rebates for exported farm products are likely to be further increased, the meeting was told.

Buhe, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, gave credit to the progress and pointed to remaining problems, urging government bodies to take effective steps to speed up the healthy development of rural enterprises.

Township enterprises have developed into the backbone of China's rural economy since their first creation in the early 1980s, and have been called "reservoirs" for surplus labor, as well as "wallets" for farmers.

Statistics show that there are 20.7 million rural enterprises in the country offering 120 million jobs, and one third of the gross domestic product in rural areas has been created by rural enterprises.

(People's Daily 12/14/2000)