Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Coping with the Global Financial Crisis and Maintaining Steady and Properly Rapid Economic Development in the Western Area of China

Efforts shall be made on orderly industrial transfer. We shall exert the advantages of the eastern area in capital, technology, human resources and management and of the western area in resources, market and labor resources to guide gradual transfer of industries in the eastern area to the western area. We shall, according to traffic advantages, select a batch of cities with certain basis as pilots to take industries transferred from the eastern area, and promote the construction of industrial transfer demonstration zones and eastern-western interactive industrial cooperation demonstration zones. Governments and departments shall make strict supervision of industrial transfer in respect of conformance of industrial policies, environmental protection and intensive utilization of resources so as to prevent transfer of backward production capacities to the western area. Specific policies for taking of transferred industries by central and western areas shall be formulated. We shall give priority to major industrial projects that have been examined and approved by the country to be arranged in the western area.

4. Strengthen livelihood programs to promote social harmony

The construction of affordable housing project shall be quickened. We shall expedite the construction of low-rent housings in urban area and heighten efforts on reconstruction of squatter settlements in state-owned forest regions, reclamation areas and mining areas and urban area as well as local mining areas which were originally owned by the state. More pilots for herdsmen settlement program and reconstruction of dilapidated houses in rural areas shall be set up and reconstruction of huts and dilapidated houses along national borders shall be quickened. Efforts shall be made to build temporarily residential houses for teachers and medical staff in rural areas in remote areas.

The conditions for production and living in rural areas shall be ameliorated. Investment in rural infrastructure shall be increased and the funds for pubic welfare projects at county level or below shall be gradually cancelled. We shall make endeavors to basically solve the issue of provision of safe drinking water to people living in rural areas within 2-3 years. By 2010, every town may have asphalt (cement) pavements and every incorporated village may be accessible. The development of small hydropower for fuel and marsh gas in rural areas shall be speeded up. We shall perfect the market system for agricultural products, support construction of circulation infrastructure including wholesale markets and free markets for bulk agricultural and sideline products, and promote chain operation in rural areas. The system of policy-supported subsidies to passenger traffic in rural areas shall be established.

More efforts shall be made on development-oriented poverty relief program. The fund for poverty relief shall be increased and the measures for supporting people with low incomes shall be carried out. The poverty relief works shall be promoted in village as a whole and the level of reducing poverty through agricultural industrialization shall be improved. We shall prudently advance the works on poverty relief through migration and improve the self-development abilities of poverty-stricken people in rural areas. We shall give priority to development-oriented poverty relief in old revolutionary base areas, areas of minority inhabitants and border areas and more efforts shall be made to poverty-stricken areas of special types. The measures for effectively linking the rural-area minimum subsistence guarantee system with the policies for development-oriented poverty relief shall be formulated.

The works on entrepreneurship and employment of farmers shall be well done. Based on experience from pilots of Nanchong and Ganzi of Sichuan and Gannan of Gansu, we shall select some counties (cities) with mature conditions to expand the coverage of the farmer entrepreneurship promotion program. Efforts shall be made to provide better services on employment and skill training of surplus labor force transferred from rural areas, and to continue to carry out the rural labor force employment plan, the Sunshine Program for training of transferred rural labor force, Spark Scientific and Technical Training Program and Yulu Training Program. We shall guide those farmers to find job outside in an orderly way, encourage them to work near their hometown and support rural immigrant workers to return to their hometown to run their businesses to improve non-agricultural incomes.

5. Speed up the development of social undertakings and improve services to the pubic

We shall give priority to education development. The 9-year compulsory education shall be further promoted, and the program of basically popularizing the 9-year compulsory education and the program of basically eliminating illiteracy among young and middle-aged people in the rest 42 counties in the western area shall be finished as soon as possible. We shall make efforts to solve the issues concerning debts arising out of the 9-year compulsory education program in rural areas within 3 years. Supports shall be given to bilingual education in areas with minority inhabitants. We shall continue the project of reconstruction of buildings of secondary schools and consolidation of buildings of primary and secondary schools in rural areas and put more efforts on reconstruction of dilapidated buildings and building of boarding schools in rural areas. Endeavors shall be made to quicken the development of secondary vocational education in rural areas, improve school conditions and teaching abilities, and gradually provide secondary vocational education for free. We shall basically achieve our objectives that every city at the prefecture level and every county with population over 300,000 shall set up a special education school. More supports shall be given to development of higher education, and the admission rate for those taking the college entrance exams in areas where lack human resources with high education shall be gradually increased.