Speaking at separate panels discussions of the on-going annual session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) Tuesday in Beijing, President Jiang urged local officials to have a clear picture of the current situation, buttress their confidence, change the style of work and do solid work to ensure that the rural situation is stable.

Agriculture, rural work and peasant problems are of first and foremost importance in reform, opening up and modernization, he said. "When agriculture is prosperous, everything would go well; when the peasants get wealthy, the state would become wealthy, too; when the rural areas are stable, the whole country would be stable. "

After hearing the views of NPC deputies from Jiangxi Province, President Jiang said that "only when we really care for the peasants and help them solve their specific problems, is it possible to rally them around us and get their full support. Cadres at all levels must foster the idea of serving the people whole-heartedly and correctly exercise the power in their own hands."

He urged local officials to discard bureaucracy and formalism and carry out the policies in spirit and to the letter.

At the penal discussions of NPC deputies from Hubei Province, Jiang said that, to increase the income of peasants and lighten their burdens provides the fundamental guarantee for realizing rural stability.

It is an incremental process to increase the income of peasants, which needs long and arduous efforts, he stressed.

He called on the local officials to timely identify problems and social contradictions and solve them in good time and to lead the people in their fight against poverty in order to ensure that every village and every household to have adequate food and clothing.

(People's Daily March 6, 2002)