By Xinhua Writer Zhu Shaobin.
SHAOXING, Zhejiang, 10 Sept 2010
As countries from around the world share their visions of "Better City, Better Life" at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, experts say
the rural poor should not be forgotten, as improved livelihoods in rural areas are key to achieving sustainability and economic transformation.
"There is no doubt China's growth over the past three decades has been remarkable, but this growth has not been trouble-free," said Eric Maskin, professor of social science at Princeton University and Nobel laureate in economics in 2007.
China's fast economic growth has come with side effects, the most notable of which has been an
increase in income inequality, especially that between cities and the countryside, Maskin said at a forum held Thursday and Friday in Shaoxing City in eastern China's Zhejiang Province.
The two-day forum discussed how rural areas can reduce the economic gap with cities, amid the broad and pressing need of economic transformation.
Li Yang, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that income distribution amid China's fast urbanization has not been satisfactory. He noted that in China, the Gini Coefficient, the main gauge to measure income disparity, is very high.
Li said the Index was 0.475 in 2007. But estimates put the figure at 0.5 nowadays, far exceeding the United Nations' target of 0.4.
China's income gap between rich and poor is largely due to gap between cities and the countryside, said Li, adding that the urban-rural divide contributes 40 percent of the unequal income distribution of China.
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China's big urban-rural gap is mainly reflected in three things: income; infrastructure and facilities; and social rights," said Ke Binsheng, President of China Agricultural University.
Ke said the urban-to-rural income ratio has widened from 2.56 in 1978 to 3.33 in 2009 as China's 200 million-strong pool of migrant workers do not enjoy equal access to education and health care.
"It has become a great challenge in developing countries to speed up the process of modernization through rural-urban interactions," said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of China's National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning body.
Zhang said the divide seriously impedes the process of building an overall well-off society in China, adding that the integration of rural areas with cities is a major task for the transformation of China' s economic growth pattern.
Greater efforts must be made in establishing comprehensive public services for both cities and rural areas, Zhang said, adding that the building of infrastructure and facilities in the countryside is also important.
"Only if roads are built and electricity networks are well equipped can rural areas expect more social resources, such as capital investment," said Li Yang.
Public services equalization for cities and the countryside is the most important way to narrow the divide, Li Yang said.
Maskin also suggested
more job training and education be provided to low-skilled workers, to allow this group themselves to narrow the gap.
