Mayor Zhang Guangning laid out a list of priorities for the city government this year at the conclusion of the city's nine-day people's congress yesterday.

Zhang, who was re-elected mayor of Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, said the city government would focus on improving the day-to-day lives of the city's residents.

He said the government would take measures to reduce crime, accelerate the development of rural areas, upgrade the infrastructure of the city's elementary and secondary schools, reduce traffic congestion, protect the environment and fortify food safety.

To address the city's high crime rate, the mayor said Guangzhou would increase the number of plainclothes police officers patrolling its streets to 2,000 from just over 1, 000 this year. The city will also recruit another 3,500 security personnel, bringing the total number to 10,000.

Guangzhou has also set aside 205 million yuan (US$26.28 million) to develop a city-wide security monitoring system.

Zhang said the city government would better manage its immigrant and migrant populations by monitoring home rentals, cancelling registration fees for migrants and other measures.

"We admit that most of the floating population has benefited Guangzhou's development," he said. "However, we can never neglect the fact that the floating population is also responsible for about 80 percent of the city's criminal cases and other misdeeds that have caused disorder."

He also said the city government would accelerate the development of the city's rural areas to narrow the development gap between urban and rural areas.

He said the city government would work to increase the net income of the rural population by 7 percent this year. The city's rural population earned 7,788.27 yuan (US$998) last year.

The city will also earmark 4.96 billion yuan (US$635 million) to support the construction of elementary and secondary schools in rural areas this year. The city spent 4.96 billion yuan (US$635.9 million) on schools in 2005 and 2006, he said.

The mayor said Guangzhou would spend 2.3 billion yuan (US$294 million) this year to improve elementary and secondary schools with comparatively poor educational infrastructure.

Guangzhou will also offer more training programs to adult farmers to help them find jobs in the secondary or tertiary industries to reduce the amount of redundant laborers in rural areas, the official added.

And the city will expand its medical cooperation system to cover 94.5 percent of the rural population this year, and 100 percent in 2008.

He said the city would also have to take aggressive steps to reduce traffic congestion. The number of private cars and the city's ban on motorcycles have both contributed to the clogging of Guangzhou's roads.

He added that another urgent area would be for the city to standardize educational standards at its different elementary and secondary schools to give children access to equal educational opportunities.

(China Daily January 31, 2007)