The Chinese government on Wednesday said it would invest more funds in the countryside this year as part of its efforts to boost agricultural development and narrow the widening urban-rural gap.

The decision was made when the country is confronted with difficulties in balancing the supply and demand of farm products, maintaining stable growth of grain production and farmers' incomes, and narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas, said the first document of this year jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council, or China's cabinet.

Governments above the county level must make sure that growth of their investment in agriculture would outpace that of their regular revenues every year, said the document, also called No. 1 central document.

They should shift their emphasis to infrastructure construction and social programs development in the countryside, the document said.

Both government expenditure and fixed asset investment in the countryside must "expand at a markedly faster pace" this year, it added. And local governments must set aside part of their city construction budgets for rural areas.

China would also speed up legislation to ensure that investment in the countryside would be better managed and bring about greater benefits.

To improve the country's agricultural productivity, more investment was needed to build irrigation projects, reinforce dilapidated reservoirs, protect arable land, promote agricultural mechanization and curb desertification.

The investment would also be used to provide free textbooks to rural students under the nine-year compulsory education system and expand the rural cooperative medical care system, under which the government helps fund farmers' medical expenses.

The minimum living allowance for needy families would be raised in rural areas, an endowment insurance system would be established there, public transportation would be improved and more farmers would be encouraged to use clean fuels, such as marsh gas, solar and wind power.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2008)