BEIJING (Reuters) - China plans to spend close to 4 billion yuan (262.5 million pounds) over the next three years to ensure that all of its villages has a cultural centre where residents can learn, play and be entertained, state media said. The funds will be used to construct or expand 26,700 cultural centres in rural areas, the official Xinhua news agency cited State Councillor Chen Zhili as saying on Thursday. "By 2010, every village in China will have a culture centre," Xinhua quoted Chen as saying. Concerned about social stability, Beijing has been ramping up spending on the countryside in an effort to narrow the yawning gap between the rural poor and the increasingly wealthy -- and well-educated -- residents of urban coastal areas. To that end, the government has expanded rural cooperative medical insurance and abolished most school fees for rural children. It is also trying to improve financial services in the countryside, to give farmers a better chance of getting ahead. Chen said the centres should offer affordable, high-quality facilities including libraries, sports facilities and theatres -- and should be not-for-profit. Separately, Xinhua said Beijing would double to 100 million yuan the awards it would hands out this year for efforts to promote science among the rural population. The awards, presented to more than 430 organisations and individuals, would go in a large part to science and technology associations in the country's less developed central and western regions, Xinhua said. This year's recipients included an onion research institute and a team that promoted "scientific" farming and herding techniques in Inner Mongolia, Xinhua said. ($1=7.5148 yuan) http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddly...0070927?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews
