The Chinese central government has promised to increase investment in rural construction.	Medical services are available to farmers in Shengzhou City, Zhejiang Province.	The Chinese central government plans to increase investment in popularizing compulsory education in the next five years.

CHINA’S economic boom has been a focus of world attention for more than a decade. Its GDP having increased almost 13-fold in the past 15 years, economy and development are two of the most frequently heard buzzwords in the Chinese media. China is also holding its own within the global economy, and in 2004 was the number one contributor to global trade growth. Products “Made in China” are to be seen in every country in the world, as are Chinese investors.

The rapidly growing Chinese economy has indisputably brought with it improvements to living standards, but has also engendered social problems. At the Fourth Session of the Tenth National People’s Congress, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao listed in his 2006 government work report the problems that have emerged in the past five years of economic and social development. They are: an irrational economic structure; lack of motivation to innovate; excessive consumption of energy resources; alarmingly high environmental pollution; uneven regional development and a widening income gap; and sluggish promotion of social welfare.

In order to solve these problems, the Chinese government has proposed a new pattern of economic growth whose emphasis is on social development and conserving energy and resources. Within this new development mode, economic growth will depend less on resource consumption and more on technological and human resources. In the past, the government sacrificed rural interests in order to boost industrial development in urban areas. Its current plan is to invest in and channel funds towards stimulating the rural economy, and also to make various public services available throughout China’s vast countryside.

Scientific Development and Harmonious Society

In the next five years, China will rely on science to build a harmonious society and realize sustainable economic development.

“China has successfully accumulated the ability to develop in all spheres,” was the comment of Wang Mengkui, director of the Development and Research Center of the Chinese State Council. He went on: “We must allocate more funds towards balancing economic and social development and increase investment in education, culture, science, technology, medical services, environmental protection and ecological construction.”

The Chinese premier emphasized the need to switch to a human-oriented scientific development concept; he confirmed that the central government bears the responsibility both for developing the country’s economy and offering public services to its people. He advocated increasing investment in human resource training and in making sure that all, particularly the poverty stricken and underprivileged, have basic access to education, social welfare, public health services and medical insurance.

In the past, the government allocated insufficient funds to these basic social services, which meant that Chinese citizens were obliged to dig deep to fulfill these fundamental needs. Despite China’s bank deposit rates being the world’s highest, its consumption rate is 20 percent lower than the average world standard.

In the next five years, the Chinese government will tackle issues that affect the basic interests of its people, such as employment, social welfare, public health services and production safety issues. The income level of both urban and rural dwellers will be increased, and social allowances will also be increased in order to accelerate domestic consumption and economic growth. In the next five years, national investment in compulsory education will account for 4 percent of China’s GDP, and compulsory education will be popularized nationwide.

The Drive to Innovate

Pollution has diluted China’s GDP increase. In 1995, losses resulting from air and water pollution equaled 8 percent of that year’s GDP, according to the World Bank. Chinese experts calculate that in 2003 losses as a direct result of environmental pollution and ecological destruction equaled 15 percent of its GDP. At this year’s NPC session, the Chinese government proposed building China into an innovative country whose aims are to achieve economic progress whilst reducing natural resource consumption and halting environmental deterioration. In 2006, the central government will also increase its investment in scientific and technological research to RMB 71.6 billion – an increase of 19.2 percent.

In the past China’s economic development relied heavily on material consumption, according to Li Haijian, industrial expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Li says that China should make use of its rich human resources to stimulate the economy, and in order to avoid future losses from pollution, rely more on technological innovation and human resources. The Chinese government has consequently fixed certain development indexes for the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (2006-2010): a planned annual GDP increase rate of 7.5 percent over the next five years, a 20 percent reduction on per unit GDP energy consumption and a 10 percent reduction in discharges of polluted materials.

Increased Investment in Rural Development

In the past, China’s economic development has been achieved through urbanization and at the cost of rural interests. From 1954 to 1978, the Chinese government obtained, in effect, RMB 510 billion from the countryside to support urban development by cutting the prices of agricultural products that were supplied to cities. The central government also used RMB 510 billion of funds allocated to rural development to boost urban development. The result was an enlarged economic gap between rural and urban areas. In 2005 the income gap between urban and rural residents was 3.2 : 1, and rural dwellers’ under-capacity to consume the excessive supply of urban-produced goods products now hampers urban development.

The Chinese government has guaranteed to increase its investment in rural development and to make loans available with this in mind, the aim being to accelerate infrastructure construction in the vast Chinese countryside. Promoting rural development is a national task, and all villages will have access to public services.

When interviewed by the China Today staff reporters, deputies to this year’s session talked of the changes afoot in China as regards conserving resources, environmental protection, rural progress and educational reform.