China will reinforce the market system in its vast rural area in a bid to resolve widely concerned problems related to those areas, agriculture and farmers.

Chinese ministries, including the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), have jointly drafted a guidance plan to cultivate and further improve the market system in rural areas, said Huang Hai, assistant minister of commerce, in Beijing Wednesday.

Measures in the draft include to facilitate farmers' access to the market such as by lower fees and to introduce the big chain- store companies to the farmers, Huang said.

Many Chinese rural areas are still in a self-supplied household farming economy, which limited the roles of the market mechanism in those areas and hindered local development.

Besides the very sluggish growth, Chinese farmers' income was only one-third of the urban residents' last year, which is unusual worldwide.

Premier Wen Jiabao has vowed to solve the issue related to farmers, agriculture and rural areas in his report to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, earlier this month.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization also presented a huge challenge to Chinese farmers and agriculture, which was deemed fragile to a much more open trade in agricultural products.

Some experts suggested reforming and improving the supply and marketing associations, which has approximately 10,000 branches in the rural areas, and industrial associations to effectively link the farmers and the market.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2004)