Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has called for a study of certain rural areas to provide accurate and reliable information on their economic and social development.

Hui praised the efforts made by a rural statistics investigation group from the National Statistics Bureau, saying "they have provided important information for the party and the government to make decisions related to the rural areas." He made the remarks at a symposium on "statistical investigation of rural society and economy" in Beijing Tuesday.

The statistics and information collected by this group have helped ensure peasants' income increase, have enabled more people to know about problems pertaining agriculture, rural areas and farmers and have promoted rural reforms.

"The statistical investigation of rural areas will be more challenging when China speeds up its modernization drive and builds an affluent society, since that will be an important period of time for rural reform," he stressed.

He urged the departments concerned to provide reliable, accurate and timely information and services for the rural areas' future development.

The goal, he said, is "to perfect the index of statistical investigation according to changing situation of agriculture and rural areas." He added that solutions to agriculture problems should be found by analyzing data on key issues such as grain security and peasants' income."

He encouraged the group to continue to improve their work in the future.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2004)