Second, we will rectify and standardize the pattern of income distribution. We will carry out salary reform for civil servants as needed, setting up a unified state salary system for them based on both position and grade. We will make a review of all allowances and subsidies to set up a standardized and orderly system for granting them and mechanisms for oversight and restraint. We will promote reform of the income distribution system in public service institutions and improve the system for granting allowances to personnel working in remote areas where conditions are harsh to make income distribution fairer and strengthen the role of consumption in fueling economic growth.

Third, we will consolidate and build on our progress in reform of the export rebate system. Allocations in the central government budget for 2006 for export rebates total 426.4 billion yuan to ensure that export rebates are paid to exporters on time and in full. All local governments, provincial governments in particular, must guarantee the funds for paying export rebates in accordance with the regulations of the system. In addition, we will strengthen the role of tariff and other tax policies in supporting the foreign trade broker system, changing the way foreign trade is growing and promoting its sound development.

2. Increasing policy support and spending to accelerate the building of a new socialist countryside. A new socialist countryside is a grand objective set at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee. Working toward this objective will not only help develop agriculture and rural areas and help improve the lives of farmers, but even more importantly, has a direct bearing on efforts to maintain the long-term political stability of the country and rejuvenate the Chinese nation. We need to gradually expand what is paid for by public financing in rural areas and establish a sound mechanism for ensuring stable increases in government funds to support agriculture. In 2006 we will maintain continuity and stability in the policy of directing new spending increases in education, culture and health primarily to rural areas and increase the overall scale of spending in those areas, working particularly hard when it comes to farmers to "give more and take less" and give them more control over their operations. We will guide and stimulate the enthusiasm of all sectors of society to increase investment in agriculture, rural areas and farmers. A total of 339.7 billion yuan will be allocated from the central government budget for agriculture, rural areas and farmers for the year, 42.2 billion yuan or 14.2% more than was what actually spent in 2005. This was greater than the rate of growth for both revenue and expenditures in the central government budget, and the increase accounted for 21.4% of the growth of expenditures in that budget.