Income reform targets equality
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-07 08:13
National advisors yesterday agreed to put reforming and standardizing China's
income distribution system at the top of their priorities.
Reforming the
system is very important to China as the country's economic reforms are at
critical juncture, participants at a symposium, which included non-Communist
parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce,
agreed.
President Hu Jintao, also general secretary of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), presided over the Beijing
symposium where different bodies gave their opinions on the upcoming reform of
the income distribution system.
A release from the symposium said the CPC
would "seriously consider and absorb" their comments and advice, which Hu said
was "full of insight."
Calling the reforms "an important issue in China's
political and economic life," Hu said in a speech that the CPC Central Committee
would strive to defend social equality and close the wealth gap by raising the
incomes of the low-paid, expanding the size of middle classes, wiping out
illegitimate incomes and putting a curb on excessively high salaries.
A source close to the meeting said reforming the payment system for civil
servants is high on the agenda.
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central
Committee also recently discussed the income distribution system.
It
agreed that more attention should be paid to social equity so that everyone can
enjoy the fruits of reform and socialist modernization.
There is
currently a substantial income gap between the rich and poor.
According
to government statistics the richest people, accounting for 10 per cent of urban
dwellers, own 45 per cent of the total urban wealth. While the poorest 10 per
cent of urban dwellers only have 1.4 per cent.
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