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BEIJING: China recorded its widest rural-urban income gap last year since the country launched its
reform and opening-up policy in 1978.
Think tank researchers warned the gap will continue to widen in the coming years if effective
measures to narrow the difference are not implemented soon.
The urban per capita net income stood at 17,175 yuan ($2,525) last year, in contrast to 5,153 yuan
in the countryside, with the urban-to-rural income ratio being 3.33:1, according to the latest figures
from the National Bureau of Statistics.



 The Ministry of Agriculture had earlier said that the ratio in
Chinese govt promises to close 2007 was 3.32:1, which narrowed by to 3.31:1 in 2008.
income gap
More than just income gap to Although there has yet to be an official announcement,
bridge China Daily's calculations reveal 2009 saw China's widest
China's urban, rural income gap urban-rural income gap in the past 32 years.
widens
Urban, rural income gap widens "I am afraid the (urban-rural) income gap will continue to
despite economic recovery expand as the country focuses its efforts on urban sprawl,
How wide is the income gap rather than rural development," Song Hongyuan, director of
today? the Research Center for the Rural Economy in the Ministry
of Agriculture, told China Daily.
Several think tank organizations have raised similar warnings ahead of the upcoming annual
sessions of top legislators and political advisors, which open Wednesday and Friday respectively,
expecting the income disparity issue to top the discussion agenda.
Song Xiaowu, president of the China Society of Economic Reform, said the widening urban-rural
income gap has partly resulted in China's increasingly "appalling income disparity between the
haves and have-nots".
Song's organization has already organized a high-level forum and the input and proposals from
experts will be submitted to the leadership for review.
According to Song, the wealth gap is due to low salaries for employees and migrants in many
companies, as well as rapidly growing profits for the management of State-owned enterprises, real
estate developers and some private companies.
Zhang Dongsheng, director of the Income Distribution Department of the National Development and
Reform Commission, admitted that the government "has said more than it has done" to bridge the
income gap.
"We (the government) didn't think comprehensively on how to address the income disparity issue,"
said Zhang. "However, social equality and equal human development are the essence of our society,
which is becoming richer than ever before."
Chi Fulin, president of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, urged the
government to unveil an overall program to double people's income within five years. He said that in
the post-crisis era, China must primarily resort to domestic consumption, instead of investment and
foreign trade to keep its economy on the fast track.
"To boost domestic consumption, I am urgently expecting the government to announce a program to
double people's per capita income in five years," said Chi, who is a member of the National
Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He will submit the
proposal to the annual session this week.
As China is set to draft its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) this year, the country "should take the
opportunity and list the double-income target as a national goal", Chi said.



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