SCIO briefing on the 'No. 1 central document' in 2017

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Speakers:
Tang Renjian, deputy head of Central Rural Work Leading Group and director of the Office of Central Rural Work Leading Group
Han Jun, deputy director of the Office of Central Rural Work Leading Group

Chairperson:
Hu Kaihong, director-general of the Press Bureau, State Council Information Office

Date:
Feb. 6, 2017

CNR:

Just now Mr. Tang mentioned that the supply-side structural reform in agriculture is a new concept put forward according to the current situation of rural development. In fact, promoting the transformation of the mode of agricultural development and restructuring are what we have been working on. Can you specify the differences between the current reform and the previous one? Will there be any different measures? Thanks.

Tang Renjian:

The demand for agricultural structural adjustment has never been interrupted. The climax of the first round of agricultural restructuring can be traced back to as early as the mid-1980s when China put a stop to its system of state purchasing quotas for agricultural products. Since then, the relationship between supply and demand for agricultural products has greatly improved and China's grain output reached 500 million tons in the late 1990s. At that time, the central authorities made a very important evaluation, judging that the demand for grain and other important agricultural products are actually balanced with the supply, and are more than sufficient in the years of good harvests.

Given this context and the major changes in China's internal and external environment, such as the accession to the World Trade Organization in late 2001, the central authorities decided to start the strategic readjustment of the agricultural structure.

Rather than an inheritance of the previous adjustment, the current supply-side structural reform in agriculture focuses more on innovation and development. There are three major differences between the two:

First, in the past, the adjustment was mainly aimed at solving the insufficient supply of agricultural products. The focus of the current reform is on improving the quality, efficiency and competitiveness as well as on enhancing the ability of the sustainable development of agriculture, while enhancing the balance of supply and demand.

Second, in the past, the adjustment focused mainly on the structure of agricultural production, while now we pay more attention to promoting agricultural transformation and upgrading through product mix adjustment.

Third, in the past, the adjustments were mainly in the areas of agricultural productivity, while the recent reform places more emphasis on institutional reform and institutional innovation.

There are also a number of differences in terms of the arrangements for facilitating the supply-side structural reform in agriculture.

Vertically, from the industrial development perspective, the "No. 1 central document" supports agricultural production, but extends well beyond that to including pre-, middle- and post- links concerning it, especially the post-harvest processing, storage, transportation and marketing of agricultural products.

From the horizontal point of view, the document stressed that, in addition to meeting people's demand for quality agricultural products, efforts should be also made to promote people's demand for agricultural tourism, leisure, sports, etc. Thank you.

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