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and application of new research advances. The rate of mechanization in crops
plowing, planting, and harvesting increased from 67 percent to 73 percent.

We ensured that both Party committees and governments assumed
responsibility for ensuring food security and ensured stable production and supply
of grain and other major agricultural products. With these efforts, we have fully
secured the food supply of more than 1.4 billion people.

Steady progress was made in rural reform and development. We consolidated
and improved the basic rural operation system and completed the work to
determine, register, and certify contracted rural land rights and the reform of the
rural collective property rights system for the current stage. We steadily promoted

appropriately scaled agribusiness operations of various types, ensured solid
development of family farms and farmers’ cooperatives, and accelerated the
development of commercial services for agriculture.
We launched rural development initiatives and continued to improve the rural
living environment. We strengthened rural infrastructure such as water, electricity

and gas supplies, roads, and mail and communications services. All towns,
townships, and villages where conditions permit are now connected by paved
roads and linked to bus networks. Tap water coverage in rural areas increased
from 80 percent to 87 percent, and the dilapidated houses of more than 24 million

rural households were rebuilt over the years.
We deepened the reform of supply and marketing cooperatives, collective
forest tenure, and state farms. We leveraged local resources to develop rural
industries and helped rural residents secure employment, start businesses, and

increase their incomes.
To ensure that rural migrant workers were paid on time, we worked
continuously to solve the problem of wage arrears owed to them, adopted
regulations on ensuring their wage payment, and cracked down hard on cases of

deliberately withholding wages.
7. We remained committed to opening up wider to the world and expanded
international economic and trade cooperation to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes.
In response to changes in the external environment, we pursued a more
proactive strategy of opening up and worked to boost reform and development

with high-standard opening.
Imports and exports were kept stable, and their quality was improved. We
intensified policy support in terms of export tax rebates, credit insurance, and

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