Reform's intention to narrow wealth gap
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-19 08:33
The Chinese Government is pushing a reform in the "interest of the broadest
masses" to reduce income gaps and redress social inequity.
In its latest
effort to ensure that the country's pay and distribution system work in a
"scientific, rational, fair and just" fashion, the government has vowed to
increase the income of low earners, expand the moderate-income population and
readjust the earnings of the top bracket, the Xinhua News Agency reported on
Monday.
The pay and distribution reform is important to building a
harmonious society, Xinhua said in an interview with officials from the
ministries of personnel, finance, civil affairs, and labour and
security.
The reform has aroused widespread attention since the Political
Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China discussed it in
May.
Although the country has made headway in improving living standards
and reforming its social security system, it has yet to tackle thorny problems
in income distribution.
For one thing, the income disparity has been
widening between urban and rural dwellers, among people living in different
areas, and among workers in different industries, Xinhua said.
Urban
residents earn on average three times what rural people do. The richest people,
accounting for 10 per cent of city dwellers, possess 45 per cent of total urban
wealth, according to media reports.
To narrow the wealth gap, the country
has to deepen reform on income distribution, unnamed officials quoted by Xinhua
said.
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