"Poland's government spends five percent of its budget on old-age pensions for farmers but China spends precisely zero," said Zhao Dianguo, director general of the Rural Social Insurance Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Zhao made the remark at a press conference held in Beijing on November 16 to launch the China Human Development Report 2007/08, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme.

Zhao said his department had drafted a guide paper proposing the government set aside a budget to provide pensions for farmers.

The draft paper will be submitted to the State Council at the end of the year for approval. The details of the budget are still under discussion.

The program is designed to provide 80 percent of famers with pensions within the term of current government (by 2012), and achieve 100 percent coverage by 2022, Zhao said.

Zhao said that rural poverty was a serious social problem. "The solution to the problem must include rural pension coverage," Zhao noted. "Some cities have implemented pension systems for migrant workers but they are just a transitional approach and we need a pension system for all farmers."

Just back from a research tour in Poland, Zhao said that 2 percent of China's central fiscal expenditure would provide a modest pension for farmers.

A number of local governments have completed two-year pilot projects exploring farmers' pensions and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security based its guidance paper on expanding the rural pension system on the results of the projects.

(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, November 18, 2008)