Closing gap between haves and have-nots By Fu Jing (China Daily) Updated: 2005-12-17 07:12
Lu worked as a co-ordinator of the writing team of the report since last
June.
The report, commissioned by UNDP China and nationally co-ordinated by the
China Development Research Foundation, results from nine background reports on
different topics, which were hammered out by a team of 13 think-tank researchers
since last June. The writing team was supervised by a high-ranking advisory
group co-chaired by Malik and Wang Mengkui, president of the Development
Research Centre of the State Council.
"Inequity is evident and concrete help should be immediately granted to those
in the lower level of the social ladder," said the report's lead author Li Shi,
professor from Beijing Normal University.
Landless farmers need help
The report has paid great attention to farmers who had lost land to real
estate development, industrial zones and other uses. Official statistics
indicated that at least 40 million farmers have lost their land upon which their
basic living depends. "The country should start from law-making and the legal
system to ensure basic living necessities, social security benefits and ample
compensation for those farmers," the report said.
The report urges the local governments to speed up the establishment of
systems used to work out land values when requisitioning farmers' land. It said
the compensation for farmland requisitioned by the State for major construction
projects should also be increased.
The types and quality of arable land, farmers' input, as well as the prices
of primary products are to be taken into account when deciding the value of
average annual output. The compensation sum should also give consideration to
the local economic situation, people's living standards and other social
security demands, according to the report.
The central government also made public compensation standards, which were
promised to pay farmers at most 30 times the value of the average annual output
of the arable land over the previous three years.
"China should make a larger attempt to solve the
lingering problems of farmers whose land was inadequately or randomly
compensated in the past, and I am sure it will," Malik said.
|