The municipal government of Guangzhou will step up efforts to improve the living standard of the city's rural population.

In his annual government work report to the city's ongoing people's congress, which opened on Monday and is set to last through next Tuesday, Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangning said the city government would do its best to enhance the net income of the rural population by 7 percent this year from the annual income of 7,788.27 yuan ($998.5) in 2006.

The government will provide greater support to the rural areas and gear up efforts to adjust the agricultural structure to bolster the development of the rural productivity, he said.

The city will further promote standardized agricultural production, the application of science and technology to the agricultural production in the rural areas this year.

He said that more investment would go to the rural infrastructure projects to make the life in the mountainous areas more convenient and improve the water conservancy facilities ranging from reservoirs, dykes to small irrigation facilities against natural disasters.

Citing statistics, he said, Guangzhou poured capital worth 1.19 billion yuan ($152.69 million) for the infrastructure construction in rural areas and another 690 million yuan ($88.46 million) in support of the infrastructure construction in the rural areas between 2002 and 2006.

The mayor said that the city would earmark 4.96 billion yuan ($635.9 million) to support the construction of elementary and secondary schools in the rural areas this year, following the annual investment of 4.96 billion yuan ($635.9 million) in 2005 and 2006.

Guangzhou will also offer more training programs to the adult farmers to help them find jobs in the secondary or tertiary industry so that the problem of the redundant laborers can be solved , the official added.

A total of 150,000 rural residents have received the training and have found jobs in the industries other than agriculture since 2004.