The Communist Party of China (CPC) will intensify its fight
against corruption and the effort will have a "more prominent
place" on its agenda, a top-level Party meeting presided by
President Hu Jintao declared yesterday.
The Party and government will "carry out the fight against
corruption comprehensively, address its symptoms and root causes,
and combine punishment with prevention with the emphasis on
prevention," said a statement issued after a meeting of the
Political Bureau of the CPC.
"Party committees at various levels must realize the perennial,
complex and arduous nature of the anti-corruption fight, and
implement the guidelines issued at the CPC's 17th National
Congress," the statement said.
In his report to the congress, Hu said the country would
continue its efforts to build a clean government and fight
corruption.
According to yesterday's statement, the Party and the government
will also strengthen supervision over leaders of State-owned
enterprises (SOEs) to help them uphold integrity and stem
corruption to promote the healthy development of SOEs.
The meeting urged Party discipline organs and government
supervision departments to speed up their work on formulating a
plan to improve the anti-corruption system between 2008 and
2012.
Rural development
The meeting also addressed the issue of agriculture and rural
development, and stressed the challenges facing the achievement of
balanced development between rural and urban areas.
"The Party has always made the development of agriculture,
farmers and rural areas a priority... but we must see that there
are quite a few challenges," the statement said.
The foundation of agriculture remains weak and the gap between
urban and rural development has kept growing, the statement
says.
The meeting stressed that much work needs to be done to realize
balanced development between urban and rural areas, transform the
development pattern of agriculture, improve productivity, ensure
the supply of farm produce and keep farmers' incomes growing
steadily.
The participants agreed the government would spend more on
agriculture and rural development projects and work out more
policies to support and benefit agriculture, rural areas and
farmers.
Public services in rural areas need further improvement, the
statement said.
Special efforts will be made to improve basic healthcare
services in the countryside and include more villagers in the
social insurance network.
Farmers' right to use farmland should be safeguarded and the
interests of migrant workers in cities protected, it said.
The Party and the government will work to promote the
self-governance system at the primary level of rural society to
help rural residents enjoy more democracy, according to the
statement.
At the meeting, a number of policies on agriculture were
announced, including more spending on infrastructure and irrigation
facilities in rural areas, better conservation of farmland, more
new agricultural technologies and support for industrialized
farming.
(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2007)