Vice Premier Calls for Reducing Burden on Farmers ����In a keynote address delivered to a recent national teleconference, Vice Premier Wen Jiabao urged local governments at all levels to attach greater importance to reducing the burden on farmers. ����The vice premier called for a high-degree political responsibility and the adopting of measures to firmly end all activities that could increase their burden. ����From now until early next year, greater administration and supervision must be in this area in order to safeguard social stability in rural areas, said Wen, who is also a member of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. ����Wen pointed out that it is the CPC's basic policy to reduce the economic burden on farmers and that many of these burdens have been curbed because the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have paid consistent and great attention to the issue, while local governments at all levels have also made their efforts. ����However, he noted, the problem has never been resolved at its root, and is quite serious in some localities. ����Unless the economic burden is really reduced, farmers will not be able to acquire the capability and enthusiasm to increase their investment, readjust crop structure, develop production, and increase their incomes, the vice premier noted. ����Now, as the autumn harvest and government procurement of farm products begin, the very time when all sorts of levies are collected in the countryside is also the time to confront this issue, according to the vice premier. ����Wen attributed the inability to resolve this long-standing problem to the failure of some localities to carry out the policy of reducing these burdens. The policy must be implemented unswervingly, he stressed. ����He ordered the abolishment of all local rules that are contrary to the central government policy in this regard and an end to any overcharges levied by local governments and to all illegal levies. The leadership at all levels must ensure that no major cases related to economic burdens on farmers occur in their localities, he added. ����The vice premier pledged that the central government will propel local governments to reduce the burden, check any irregularities, enforce severe punishment in major cases, especially those resulting in death or injury, reduce taxis and levies for disaster-strichken farmers, and strengthen the education for and control of grassroots officials. (Xinhua) Economicnews 1999-10-18 Page2 Full Story in Chinese