| Int'l workshop on Chinese farmers' rights opens
2003-08-01
Xinhua
Officials, experts and scholars from around the world are discussing ways to
improve the rights of Chinese farmers at a two-day workshop in Haikou, the
capital of southern China's Hainan Province, which opened here Thursday.
The meeting is co-sponsored by the Haikou-based China Institute for Reform
and Development and the International Republican Institute of the United
States.
More than 120 participants will discuss major issues such as public policies
concerning farmers after the SARS outbreak, the migration of surplus laborers
from the countryside, the rights of transient workers from rural areas, and the
link between farmers' organizations and farmers' rights.
These participants have come from the United States, Norway, India and Nepal
as well as China to provide the Chinese government with references in making
policies on rural development.
China, with a population of 1.3 billion, has over 900 million rural
residents.
The growing economic gap between urban residents and rural people
is hindering China's sustainable development, though enormous achievements have
been made in the countryside over the past two decades, according to some noted
Chinese experts. | 
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