Rural workers in Guangdong will be encouraged to move into
secondary and tertiary industries under a new plan.
As part of moves from the 11th Five-Year Guidelines (2006-2010),
provincial officials want up to 4.7 million people transferred into
these new industries.
Officials say a surplus within the agricultural labor force has
brought about these plans.
"If the target is fulfilled as expected, progress of
urbanization of the rural areas in Guangdong will gain speed," said
Huang Ridong, deputy director of the provincial rural work leading
group office.
More than 15 million rural laborers have been working in
non-agricultural industries in the past two decades in the
province. The figure represents 50.4 percent of the present rural
labor force in the province of Guangdong.
Huang said the province would offer "tailor-made training
programs" to make the transfer of rural labor force possible.
"The attempt to transfer the surplus of the rural labor force is
part of the strategies of the province to accelerate the
construction of the countryside in the province," he said.
Huang said the province would also carry out free compulsory
education among elementary and junior high school students in a bid
to realize education opportunities for all school-age children by
2010.
And the province also plans to set up cooperative medical
facilities to cover more than 85 percent of the rural population by
2010.
In his speech addressing the opening of this year's provincial
people's congress earlier this year, Huang Huahua, governor of the
province, said Guangdong would make US$3.82 billion available for
infrastructural projects in rural areas during the 11th Five-Year
Guidelines.
He said projects would also be initiated related to safe
drinking water, roads, power grids, irrigation systems, quality
testing systems for agricultural product quality, disease
prevention and control and fishing ports.
(China Daily April 26, 2006)