Xi: Prioritize rural vitalization strategy

President says plan must ensure that farmers have greater sense of fulfillment

The rural vitalization strategy must be given priority to ensure that farmers have more sense of fulfillment, President Xi Jinping said in a key instruction released on Thursday.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said pursuing a rural vitalization strategy is an important plan made by the Central Committee at the Party’s 19th National Congress.

The strategy is also a major approach for work in agriculture and rural areas and with farmers in the new era, Xi said in the instruction on the strategy’s implementation.

The president required all departments and local authorities to fully understand the great significance of the strategy and give priority to its implementation.

The secretaries of five levels of Party committees must focus on the implementation of the rural vitalization strategy and make the work a common practice of the whole Party, Xi added.

He said rural areas should achieve vitalization in such fields as industries, talent, culture, ecology and Party organization.

The farmers’ will must be respected in the practice of rural vitalization, and their capability for creation should be encouraged, Xi said. He added that the farmers should have a greater sense of fulfillment during the process of rural vitalization.

Premier Li Keqiang said in an instruction that departments and local governments should fully implement the spirit of the Party’s 19th National Congress, be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and carry out the plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

The investment in agriculture, rural areas and farmers will continue to increase, Li said, adding that policies will be implemented to benefit the farmers.

Li vowed to deepen supplyside structural reform in agriculture, keep progressing in agricultural technology and build a modern system of agricultural industry, production and sales.

Li also called on efforts to innovate in integrated development of rural and urban areas, improve the infrastructure and public services in rural places and improve the environment in rural regions.

At a meeting on Thursday that focused on implementing the rural vitalization strategy, Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua said Xi’s thoughts on rural work must be learned earnestly and his important instruction on rural vitalization must be implemented.

The tasks set by the Rural Vitalization Strategy Plan (2018-22) were further mapped out at the meeting.

Premier Li Keqiang arrived at Sofia International Airport in Bulgaria late Thursday to start a six-day trip aimed at bringing new vitality to 16+1 cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe.

Li will make an official visit to Bulgaria on Friday and will attend the seventh Leaders’ Meeting of China and Central and Eastern European Countries, also known as 16+1 cooperation mechanism, on Saturday. Li’s first European visit since the formation of the new Chinese government also will take him to Germany.

Bulgaria, known as “a country of roses”, was one of the first to establish diplomatic ties with New China,