Sources with the Second China Village Head Forum, going on in this capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, said that China has some 690,000 villages employing five million administrative servants.

Liu Yao, secretary of the village committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Liuzhuang Village, in east China's Shandong Province, said that the lack of communications should not constitute an obstacle for the development of a village as long as the villagers emancipate their mind.

In his village nowadays, greenhouse farmers become rich by selling their products via the Internet.

Village heads from western regions have taken advantage of the opportunity to learn from their counterparts from the east, especially with regard to ecological farming and green food production, the sources said.

Hu Qinglian, secretary of the Zhangwudian Village CPC Committee in central China's Henan Province, said that villages are the basic units of Chinese society. Major problems arising in the course of China's modernization drive are originating in the rural sector.

The master's degree holder said that, at present, village heads in China are all elected via direct elections and their orientation will have a big impact on the future of China's villages.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2002)