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China warns 2009 could be 'toughest year' for farm policies
Beijing (AFP) Feb 1, 2009 China's government Sunday warned 2009 could be the "toughest year" since the turn of the century for development of the countryside, which has fallen behind as reforms favoured the cities, state media reported. Rural unemployment is high, and the situation has been exacerbated by the global economic crisis as at least six million migrant workers have been laid off from companies in the export sectors and have returned to their rural homes. The stark warning came in the first broad policy document of the year issued jointly by the State Council and the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the Xinhua news agency said. "The lingering global financial crisis and the slowdown of the world economy have exerted an increasingly negative impact on the Chinese economy," the document said, according to Xinhua. Coming from two of the nation's most powerful political agencies, including the top of the Communist Party, the document is likely to exert significant pressure on local officials to do something for the rural economy. "The development of agriculture and rural areas in 2009 is of special significance," it said, according to Xinhua. The countryside, home to an estimated 800 million Chinese, has fallen behind the cities in recent years, as economic reform has favoured the well-educated and well-connected. To alleviate the plight of the rural population, the government aims to roll out social security schemes and strengthen the protection of farmers' land rights and migrant rural workers' employment rights, Xinhua said. The document urged local and central government departments to adopt measures to create jobs and increase rural incomes, Xinhua said. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have made narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas one of their main political projects. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Japan to take some tuna fishing boats out of service: government
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 30, 2009Japan will take out of service up to 20 percent of its tuna fishing boats after tougher catch quotas were imposed on the land of sushi, the government said Friday. |
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