The Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Zhejiang University, a national key research base for humanities and social science guided by the State Ministry of Education, was founded in December 1999. When I received the weighty name board for CARD from the Ministry, I deep felt my responsibilities would also be very heavy.

China is a country with near 1,3 billion population, of which 70% are peasantry. After the comprehensive policy reform and economic transition in the past more than twenty years, most Chinese peasants at present have not been real peasants actually. As a class compared to citizens, however, the concept of the “70% peasantry” will remain its special implications for a long time. One of CARD’s tasks shall be, not only to statistical extent, but also in social sense, to reduce the proportion of farming population. Based on this, CARD regards “three Nong”, namely agriculture, peasantry and countryside, as it’s research object, and thus “promoting agricultural development, prospering rural economy and benefiting peasants ”as it’s own obligation.

The above task decides that CARD is a multidisciplinary, open research institution that links at least with economics, management, and agricultural science, sociology and law science. Whether our target will be realized or not, depending also on the innovation and reform of CARD’s own operation mechanism. For doing this, the conception “center as platform, CARD as mark, projects as link, academic research as basis, and system as safeguard” has been developed. According to this concept, CARD pays attention to its openness, stresses on the importance its cause, recruits well-trained scholars from home and abroad, in order to build a base of high-qualified intellects. Now the Center has formed a basic talent-net of economists, officials and entrepreneurs from out- and inside of the University who work here for full- or part-time. Additionally, the Executive Board and the open Academic Committee of this Center have been also established and well performed.

CARD aims, by our efforts in several years, to be a center for academic exchanges and research on agricultural and rural development in China, a key hub of gathering and diffusing information, an education and mobility base for well-trained personnel, “idea reservoir” for government decision and consultation, furthermore, to be a research center featured with self-disciplined, well-developed and “education-research-extension” integrated. As director-general, I really hope that all circles could pay more attention to CARD and intellects could join in CARD, so that we together make our contributions to the agricultural and rural development in China.

Welcome to CARD.