First document focuses on rural issues

China will pump more investment and offer more policy support into rural areas this year to further even up development in the cities and the countryside. In the number one policy document, issued on February 1st, the central government highlighted improving the lives of rural residents as one of its main tasks.

The number One document for 2010 remains concerned with farmers, villages and agricultural issues.

The first key issue is to improve the policy for empowering and benefiting farmers. The document stresses that agricultural and rural areas will be given priority for spending. The investment is expected to reach up to 700 billion yuan this year.

China will pump more investment and offer more policy support into  rural areas this year to further even up development in the cities  and the countryside.

More subsidies will be channeled into increasing the output of grain, potatoes, highland barley and peanuts, as well as the purchase of agricultural machinery.

More effort will be made to strengthen financial services including micro-credit loans and insurance services in rural area. It's being promised that basic banking services will be available in all villages and towns in the next three years.

The government is vowing to promote modernization of agriculture by improving technological innovation.

More support will be given to the cultivation of trans-genic variety and agricultural mechanization in a bid to boost the upgrading of traditional agriculture.

More effort should be made to raise the yield and quality of grain, improve irrigation, land reclamation and soil quality.

The document says agricultural development will be based on promoting the urbanization of rural areas and speeding up the construction of modern villages.

It includes faster construction of rural areas and small and medium size cities while transferring more of the agricultural population to an urban population.

The first document also focuses on improving people's livelihoods and social welfare.

New policies stress the need to integrate employment and social management and equalize basic public services in urban and rural areas.

The Central government is also demanding further expansion of the rural consumption market as part of the country's accelerating measures to boost consumption. These include encouraging farmers to build their own houses and increasing sales of construction materials in the rural market.

This year, the new rural cooperative medical care system will expand to cover all rural residents while the government will cover more medical charges. A social welfare system will be built and more should be spent on poverty relief.

The first document focuses on rural issues for a 7th year.