China's Central Government released on February 21 its first major document of 2006 calling for the construction of a "new socialist countryside" as the foremost task of China's modernization drive in the next five years.

According to the document, the country will allocate more social and economic resources to the underdeveloped countryside, including more investment in the rural areas, improving public services for the rural residents, and a shift of focus in national infrastructure construction in favor of the rural areas. In the government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the annual session of China's national legislature, China has announced the abolition of the 2,600-year-old agricultural tax as of January 1, 2006, which totals 22 billion yuan every year; the government will appropriate over 103 billion yuan annually to ensure the normal operation of town and township governments and to meet the needs of rural compulsory education from 2006; the Central Government will allocate 4.2 billion yuan to finance the establishment of a new type of rural cooperative medical care system; over the next two years, the government will completely eliminate tuition and miscellaneous fees for all rural students receiving compulsory education.