BUENOS AIRES, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The plan to boost rural development, which was being promoted by China's National People's Congress (NPC), is vital for the balanced development of the nation, an Argentine expert said on Wednesday.

    Jorge E. Malena, head of the Contemporary China Studies Department at University of Salvador, told Xinhua in an interview that the plan would improve the well-being of China's rural population, which accounts for 60 percent of its citizens.

    The planned measures target modernizing agriculture, eliminating taxes, setting up affordable health and education systems, and halting the loss of cultivated land.

    The initiative seeks to reduce disparities between rural areas and more developed urban areas to create a society that is more comfortably off, said Malena, the author of several books on China.

    "The strides taken by this initiative in social, political and economic terms mean this 11th five-year plan will be a milestone,"the professor said.

    During the ongoing annual NPC session held in Beijing, the Chinese government outlined a "new socialist countryside" plan for the 11th Five-Year Program (2006-2010) period, showing the resolve of Chinese leaders to spread the fruits of reform and opening up to the rural areas. Enditem