No 1 Central Document details rural vitalization strategy

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Central authorities have unveiled a more detailed "road map" for the national rural vitalization strategy in its annual No 1 Central Document, Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

The document is the first policy statement released at the start of each year by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China's cabinet, and has long served as an indicator of government priorities.

Xinhua said that it has authorized to release the text of this year's No 1 Central Document, whose theme was to call on local authorities to learn from the successful experience of the Rural Green Revival Project, a sweeping campaign launched in the early 2000s to improve rural environment across Zhejiang province.

The project was recognized with a Champions of the Earth Award, the UN's highest environmental honor, in 2018.

According to Xinhua, the document is composed of six parts, including ensuring national food security, improving rural industrial chains, and strengthening construction and governance in the countryside.

The document stressed that agriculture and rural affairs are the bedrock for China to advance its modernization drive, and the lessons offered by the Rural Green Revival Project must be employed to solve problems related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new era.

The document also called for officials to focus on solving issues that can be felt by rural residents this year, it said.

The document noted that two redline requirements in rural-related work is to ensure food security and prevent farmers from sliding into absolute poverty after almost 100 million farmers shook off poverty since 2012 as part of national antipoverty drive.

It said that this year's rural work will be driven more by technology and reforms, and efforts to increase rural income.