President Xi Jinping greets role models from the country's agricultural sector ahead of the Central Rural Work Conference in Beijing. The two-day gathering concluded on Friday. XIE HUANCHI / XINHUA
China has unveiled the timetable for realizing a key strategy to vitalize the country's vast countryside at the annual Central Rural Work Conference that concluded on Friday.
Nationwide efforts to accomplish the strategy will see important progress as of 2020, when the institutional framework and policy system generally take shape, according to a statement from the conference.
Decisive progress will be achieved as of 2035, when modernization of agriculture and rural areas fundamentally become reality. In 2050, the all-around vitalization will feature strong agriculture, a beautiful countryside and well-off farmers, the statement said.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attended and addressed the two-day conference. He elaborated on the major issues in realizing the strategy and offered specific requirements for translating it into reality, according to the release.
The strategy, clearly put forward by the 19th CPC National Congress in October, aims to build China's rural areas with "thriving businesses, pleasant living environments, social etiquette and civility, effective governance and prosperity".
The rural vitalization strategy should be seen as the highest tool for handling work regarding farmers, agriculture and rural areas at a time when socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, according to the latest rural work meeting.
The key to vitalize rural areas lies in the Party leadership, and the Party should always take charge of the general picture while coordinating all the departments involved, the meeting release said.
To carry out the strategy, it is also necessary to formulate plans for rural vitalization and roll out several major projects, plans and actions, it said.
Rural vitalization should be pursued in an unhurried manner, with an emphasis on quality instead of speed, according to the conference.
Despite sound progress in agricultural and rural work, China still faces a development gap between its urban and rural regions due to a lack of quality and efficiency in agriculture and a lack of sustained growth in farmers' income.
The conference called for more effort to advance integrated urban-rural development, with more focus on improving infrastructure, education and public services in rural areas.
Also China must boost harmony and coexistence between humans and nature; inherit, develop and enhance farming civilization; innovate in the rural governance system and eradicate poverty, according to the statement.
The conference also highlighted the importance of establishing a strong team of public servants in the rural areas. Sending public servants to grassroots rural areas should be an important way to train officials and the country needs to have a rural work team with sufficient knowledge about agriculture and a love for the countryside and farmers.
