Farmers should have more say in the use of massive amounts of
funds allocated for rural revival, a top planner said
yesterday.
The land acquisition system must also be reformed so that the
interests of rural residents are better protected, said vice
minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Du Ying.
It will be much better if the process of fund use is open, and
farmers have the right to know, supervise, and make decisions, Du
said.
He was speaking at a press briefing on the sidelines of the
ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC),
where senior officials explained how a "new socialist countryside"
would be built through a huge increase in budgetary support and
warned that corruption will not be tolerated.
"The requisition and acquisition of farmland at low prices is
hurting farmers' interests, which shows our current rural land
requisition system has not adjusted to the demands of the times
there must be reform," Du said.
He revealed some departments have been conducting "in-depth
research" in recent years on a reform plan.
The basic guideline is to distinguish the purposes of land
requisition and acquisition. If the land is taken for public
purposes, the compensation levels must be raised; if it is for
commercial development, "market mechanisms" must come into play, he
said.
The unprecedented spending on rural development must not be
dented by corruption, said vice minister of Finance Zhu
Zhigang.
"The funds are, in fact, taxpayers' money, which represent the
public interest. Any misuse or embezzlement will constitute an
infringement on public interest," he said, warning that such
practices would be severely dealt with.
The vice minister said the central budget plans to apportion
339.7 billion yuan (US$41.9 billion) to the rural sector this year,
up by 14.2 percent from 2005. "It means more than one-fifth of the
country's increased expenditure (for 2006) will go to the
countryside," he said.
The building of a cooperative medicare system in the countryside
will get an extra 4.7 billion yuan (US$579.5 million) seven times
as much as in last year and another 42.7 billion yuan (US$5.27
billion) will be earmarked for rural infrastructure.
While increased investment will help fuel rural development, the
protection of rural resources is also important, said vice minister
of Agriculture Yin Chengjie.
Industrialization and urbanization have each year eaten up at
least 266,700 hectares of rural land half of them arable land,
meaning at least 1 million farmers lose their source of livelihood,
Yin said.
He reiterated that the country would implement the "strictest
farmland protection measures."
(China Daily March 9, 2006)