China increased its funding by a big margin for the equalization of basic public services this year, while building a mechanism for coordinated regional development, according to China Financial and Economic News.

In 2005, the Chinese central government earmarked 700 billion yuan (86.4 billion U.S. dollars) of transfer payments, up 74.7 percent over 2002, according to the newspaper, which is published by the Ministry of Finance.

The newspaper quoted Finance Minister Jin Renqing as saying the figure excluded 400 billion yuan (49.3 billion dollars) of payments in returned tax revenues to localities.

The Chinese central government began this year to launch a three-year program to help counties and townships with financial difficulties, he said.

The central government has allocated 15 billion yuan to support poor counties to boost local economy, said Jin.

The move has helped bring the initiative of local governments into full play in cutting their debts and downsizing government departments, he said.

The provincial governments of southwest China's Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and north China's Hebei, which are involved in the program, have taken a series of measures to help those financially difficult county and township governments.

Meanwhile, economically developed coastal regions such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces have offered economic aids to their poor counties and townships.

The transfer payments to central and western parts of the country totaled 110 billion yuan in 2005, up 294 percent over 2002, or an annual average increase of 58 percent, he added.

The mechanism helped to promote the equalization of public services and alleviated the financial difficulties of some counties and townships, he said.

Source: Xinhua