Beijing has witnessed a growing disparity between urban and rural income, Qiang Wei, deputy secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has said.

Per capita net income of rural residents in the national capital stood at 7,860 yuan (US$990) in 2005, up 9.6 percent over the previous year, said Qiang.

Meanwhile, the per capita disposable income of urban residents hit 17,650 yuan (US$2,206), a growth of 12.9 percent as against the 2004.

Despite continuous increase in recent years, the income of rural residents was nearly 9,800 yuan (US$1,225) less than that of their urban compatriots, a sharp jump from the gap of 2, 563 yuan (US$320) in 2004, Qiang said on the sideline of the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

He noted that there are more than 3 million farmers scattered in some 3,900 villages around the city.

Official statistics show that the per capita net income of rural residents across China amounted to 3,255 yuan (US$406) in 2005, a real growth of 6.2 percent. The per capita disposable income of Chinese urban residents was 10,493 yuan (US$1312), a growth of 9.6 percent after deducting price factors.

Qiang pledged to explore ways to increase farmers' income in the drive of building new countryside in line with China's 11th Five-Year (2006-2010) Plan, including modernizing agriculture, fostering city-oriented agricultural services, encouraging the development of industry and service sectors in the suburbs, as well as helping rural labor forces to take up non-agricultural businesses.

A fundamental national compensatory mechanism concerning the development of various sectors, land resources, biological system, natural disasters and social issues should be set up to balance rural and urban development, in a bid to promote social equality and harmony, said Niu Wenyuan, a leading expert on China's sustainable development and a member of China's top political advisory body which is in an annual session in Beijing.

China is determined to accelerate the rural development to reduce the yawning gap with urban areas. According to the " socialist new countryside" initiative revealed in the latest government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao, China plans to pour 339.7 billion yuan in the rural areas and completely rescind agricultural tax throughout the country this year, in addition to many other positive measures.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)