Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (957)	10/8/2003 7:26:38 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

Beijing to spend $8.6b on poor The annual sum will be used to guarantee food and housing BEIJING - China will spend up to US$5 billion (S$8.6 billion) a year to guarantee food and housing for millions of needy people, officials said yesterday amid efforts to close a politically volatile gap between the elite and the majority. The announcement, coming as China makes final preparations for its first manned space launch, highlighted the growing gulf between its booming cities and high-tech ambitions and its poor countryside, home to some 800 million Chinese. Advertisement Chinese leaders are in the midst of efforts to raise the incomes of the rural poor, the unemployed and millions of others left behind in two decades of reform. This year, 12 billion yuan (S$2.5 billion) will be spent to guarantee minimum incomes for the poor, according to the Civil Affairs Ministry. About 20 million rural people are eligible, plus millions more in cities, said Mr Wang Zhenya, a ministry official. He said that once all are covered, spending is expected to rise to some 40 billion yuan a year. 'We are going to put in place a nationwide social relief system for all of China in the near future,' he said. China's income gap is stark and growing. The economic output of Shanghai, its commercial centre, was about 40,000 yuan per person last year. But in the poorest rural areas, millions of families get by on just 600 yuan a year. Subsidies to the poor vary from 240 yuan a year in the poorest areas to 1,000 yuan in expensive cities. China's official poverty line is 625 yuan a year. AP straitstimes.asia1.com.sg