Premier Zhu Rongji broke with tradition yesterday by highlighting the needs of two vulnerable groups - the urban and rural poor - as the Government's top priorities in the coming year.
In a departure from his previous reports, Mr Zhu said it was important to protect and raise the incomes of poor groups in urban and rural areas.
Regarding the urban poor, Mr Zhu said the Government would target retired and redundant workers from state enterprises by ensuring they received their pensions and stipends on time.
He also pledged the central Government would increase contributions to the funds set up by local governments to ensure a minimum living standard of city residents, although the Premier also urged local governments to relax their purse strings and contribute to the funds.
China is eager to set up a 'minimum living standard protection scheme' to provide a level of protection for those who are unable to find a job for more than two years and are no longer covered by unemployment funds. However, so far only 11.2 million people have been included in the scheme because of a lack of funds.
The Premier devoted the longest section in his report to addressing the needs of farmers.
He announced the Government would further expand the experimental tax-for-fee reform after it was abruptly dropped in July last year. But he refrained from promising that the reform, intended to reduce farmers' financial burden, would be introduced nationally.