A social study has suggested China improve its social structure to help the country cope with the financial crisis and drive for sustained development.

"China's Social Structure Today", a report released Friday after a 5-year study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said for solid domestic consumption, an effective way to boost economy in China, there needed to be an adjustment in the income distribution structure, social stratum order and urban-rural structure.

Lu Xueyi, research fellow with Institute of Sociology of CASS, said, "People's consumption cannot be increased singularly by the economic boost policy. Social structure adjustment must be China's priority task to cope with the financial crisis."

China has ushered into the middle period of industrialization economically, but many of its social indicators have lingered still in initial period, 15 years lagged behind, the report said.

Taking it as an example, Lu said in 2008, the country's agricultural output value accounted for only 10 percent of the total GDP and the rural people who accounted for more than half of the country's total population, possess little social wealth. "It's difficult to let them consume more."

Lu called for an increased supply of public goods and stepped-up reform of residence registration, employment and social security systems that could benefit all people in both cities and villages.

The report also suggested China should speed up urbanization and reduce the proportion of labor force in the farming sector to below 30 percent, and raise the proportion of middle-class.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2010)