It’s time for our series of special reports, "A Decade of Change", covering a wide range of transformations and reforms in many aspects of society in China. Yesterday, we briefed you on China’s emergence as a global economic power.
How to distribute its wealth more evenly among its people is an urgent task, and is key to achieving long-term sustainable development. CCTV reporter Guan Xin reports on at the challenges of the income gap, and government efforts to reform the income distribution system.
Building skyscrapers in Chinese cities, doesn’t necessarily mean everyone can enjoy the growing wealth.
Many Chinese people are still not well-off, despite the country’s economic boom over the past decade. Their salaries are still low, and they can only afford a very simple life.
Yolanda Fernandez Lommen has been studying China’s economy for 20 years. She says this is a result from the old development model.
Yolanda Fernandez Lommen, Asian Development Bank(China), says, "Firstly it’s the growth model that China chose 30 years ago. China is a huge economy, a huge country, it’s impossible to develop the whole country at the same time."
According to the International Institute for Urban Development, China’s Gini coefficient, which measures the inequality among values of income distribution, rose from 0.275 in the 1980s to 0.438 at the end of 2010.
A figure higher than 0.4 is considered a warning level of wealth inequality. The rural-urban gap is also acute. The income level in rural and urban areas stands at 1 to 3 point 13 in 2011 compared with only 1 to 2 point 52 in 1998. Compared to this, the world average is around 1 to 1 point 5.
In a bid to narrow the income gap, the Chinese government is drafting an income distribution reform plan to increase the share of the people’s income in the national income, and set a benchmark for wage growth and minimum wage. It will also manage the income of state-owned capital, public resources, and taxation on higher income.
Yolanda Fernandez Lommen also says, "China’s economy is ready to go into the next step of reforms, which will have more micro focuses. This project to look into income inequality is a very good example of such reforms that China should undertake now in the years to come."
The draft plan of the income distribution reform is expected to be released this Autumn. Economists say it’s a future direction of China’s economic reform path which will aim to improve ordinary people’s lives.