The Chinese leaders made their speeches at the national conference on rural structural reforms.

Zhu said that structural reform is a vital component of the country's overall reform framework in 2001 and also constitutes an indispensable guarantee for healthy development of the national economy.

The Premier also said that structural reform is an important strategic move for China's socialist construction and it is closely related to the interests of common people.

Phenomena existing in the country's rural institutions, such as bureaucracy, superposition and overlapping, pose great dangers to the sound operation of China's socialist market economy and the close relation between the Chinese Communist Party and the people.

An unhealthy structure of China's rural institutions may also help breed corruption. Therefore, it is a necessary endeavor to conduct structural reform of the country's grassroots institutions, Zhu said.

Hu Jintao said that reforming the structure of the nation's rural institutions is a must in consolidating the Party and concretely implementing President Jiang Zemin's remarks on Party building.

Hu said that structural reform will facilitate optimizing the team of public servants, reduce administrative costs, alleviate financial burdens, and improve work efficiency.

Zeng Qinghong, an alternate member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, presided over the meeting.

Chinese State Councilor and secretary-general of the State Council Wang Zhongyu, and a number of senior Party and government officials from the central and provincial levels were present at the meeting.

(Xinhua 02/03/2001)