Development of rural areas to help modernize country

Despite decades of breakneck economic growth, the development gap between China's urban and rural areas remains wide. Home to more than 570 million people, the countryside lags far behind the cities in terms of income, living standards and public services. For example, the average income of rural residents is only a third of their urban counterparts.

To correct this imbalance, the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a plan for the integrated development of urban and rural areas on Sunday, which puts greater emphasis on narrowing the institutional gap between urban and rural areas, so more rural residents can reap more benefits of reform and opening-up.

The new plan is indeed encouraging, but insight and composure are required to overcome the many remaining challenges in rural areas and to ensure the primary tasks of the plan are completed by 2022.