More investment should be put into poverty alleviation projects in vast rural areas, said Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu during a recent inspection tour to Chongqing Municipality in southwest China.

During his tour, Hui called for acceleration of agricultural modernization, saying rural industry should be equipped with advanced materials, innovated with advanced science and technology, operated with advanced forms of organization and guided by advanced managerial concepts, in a bid to lift up the overall manufacturing capacity of rural industry.

Rural reform should be enhanced, with focus on the reform of township departments, rural compulsory education, county fiscal systems, rural finance and land systems, he said.

He called for all-out effort to boost rural education, medical service and culture, emphasizing the popularization of nine-year compulsory education, establishment of new-type rural cooperative medical systems and rural infrastructure construction.

Farmers' income should be increased, and the grain production should be stabilized, he said, calling on relevant departments to guide redundant rural labor forces to non-agricultural industry and urban areas.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2005)