Deepen urban-rural integration with county-level governance as a breakthrough

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the symposium on promoting the rise of the central region in the new era that it is necessary to adhere to the integrated development of urban and rural areas and solidly promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. Deepening the integrated development of urban and rural areas is an important measure to coordinate the new urbanization and the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. As an important hub of urban and rural development, counties are connected to provinces and cities at the top and towns and villages at the bottom, supporting the common space of urbanization and rural revitalization, which is very important in promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. At present, in the process of deepening the integrated development of urban and rural areas, we are still facing difficulties and blockages in development, such as uneven governance resources, poor governance mechanisms, and insufficient governance capabilities. In this regard, it is necessary to take the county as the connection point and breakthrough point, take the lead in breaking the dual structure of urban and rural areas in the county, promote the complementary and smooth flow of urban and rural governance elements, and further stimulate the two-way flow of urban and rural elements and the resonance of urban and rural industries at the same frequency, so as to provide strong support and effective guarantee for the realization of new urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization.

Take the county as the hub to promote the scientific allocation of urban and rural governance resources. Urban-rural governance refers to the process in which the elements of urban and rural governance complement each other and promote each other. The biggest drawback of the traditional urban-rural governance structure is the separation of resources, and the governance resources such as land, materials, people, facilities, and technologies belong to their own resources, and there is no mutual benefit and sharing. Although there is a big difference between urban and rural areas, there is a convergence between urban and rural governance resource endowments, and a new type of urban-rural relationship between industry and agriculture can be formed through the overall planning and scientific allocation of resources between the two through the county, so as to form a new type of urban-rural relationship between industry and agriculture, urban and rural complementarity, coordinated development and common prosperity. The first is to establish and improve a planning system that effectively connects urban and rural governance resources. From the perspective of spatial development, there is no city separated from the countryside, and there is no rural area separated from the city, and the balanced distribution of governance resources is the basic guarantee for urban-rural integration. It is necessary to focus on key areas such as transportation, water conservancy, logistics, and human settlements, and form an integrated plan of "county-township-village" to ensure that residents can achieve complementary sharing within the circle of living needs. At the same time, it is necessary to vigorously develop small county towns, strengthen the public service functions of small county towns, and increase the universal welfare of township residents. In addition, with the formation of new agglomerations of population flows, individual counties have larger structures, smaller populations, and higher social governance costs, so the planning can be readjusted according to the actual situation, taking into account the fairness and efficiency of the allocation of governance resources, so as to meet the high-quality needs of urban and rural residents for a better life. The second is to promote the balanced development of urban and rural governance resources and the unification of standards. Due to the large gap between urban and rural space and facilities, only the county is responsible for the overall construction, and the strength is insufficient, so it is necessary to give full play to the infrastructure linkage mechanism supported by the central government, coordinated at the provincial level, and responsible for cities and counties, and coordinate multiple subjects such as governments at all levels, enterprises, and farmers to jointly provide high-quality resource services. At the same time, it is necessary to formulate unified standards for the construction and management of county and township education, medical care, transportation and other governance resources in light of local conditions and regional characteristics, and promote them in stages, so as to meet the objective needs of urban and rural residents for high-quality life and regional development. The third is to optimize the digital function of the county-level comprehensive governance platform. The county should improve the ability of data co-ordination, build a data governance platform that connects the upper and lower, connects the left and right, integrates functions, and collaborates with business, clarifies the basic data assets such as cities, collectives, and resources in the county, integrates the county's four standards and four real information, social organization information, 12345 hotline, key population information and other data, and incorporates all data and information such as county and township permanent residents, houses, and urban components into the system, so as to realize the interconnection and information sharing of cross-departmental resources. At the same time, it strengthens the functions of dynamic perception, tracking and prediction, analysis and judgment, decision-making and disposal, etc., to provide a solid foundation for the integration and docking of data elements and traditional elements.

Take the county as the hub to promote the effective link of urban and rural governance mechanisms. The essence of urban-rural governance is to reconstruct the structural relationship and operation mode between elements, and fundamentally break through the obstruction in mechanism construction, so as to provide guarantee for the exchange of factors between urban and rural areas, industrial complementarity, and population flow. It is worth noting that in the process of promoting county-level governance, the key is to break down hierarchical barriers, improve county-level coordination capabilities, and promote the smooth connection of social governance mechanisms in order to solve the problems of unconnected management, unclear responsibilities, and different frequency of actions. The first is to coordinate the new urbanization and the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside. The "Opinions on Promoting Urbanization Construction with County Towns as Important Carriers" issued in 2022 proposes to improve the ability of counties to radiate and drive rural areas, promote the convergence and complementarity of county and rural functions, and clarify the functional positioning of counties to play the role of hubs between cities and rural areas from a policy perspective. In the coming period, on the one hand, the county should give full play to the function of urban-rural integration, take the main body co-construction, information sharing, resource sharing, and mechanism sharing as the policy convergence point, deeply grasp the practical basis and internal mechanism of the overall development of the two strategies of new urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization, and systematically design and coordinate the promotion. On the other hand, urban and rural governance covers a large number of contents and covers a wide range, and there is a problem of fragmentation to a certain extent. At the same time, because various governance affairs belong to different departments, there are also problems such as segmentation. In this regard, the county can adopt a "project-based" approach to carry out special actions on common problems in urban and rural governance, focus on education, medical care, environmental governance and other fields that are closely integrated with people's livelihood, regularly carry out results acceptance, and solve governance problems in a "targeted" manner. The second is to build an urban and rural governance community. Relying on the county government to lift the city and the countryside with a large difference in magnitude will encounter problems such as insufficient self-strength from the practical level, which requires the realization of multiple links in the relationship reform of the governance body and the creation of an urban and rural governance community. At the same time, it is necessary to scientifically sort out the interest structure of urban and rural residents, find the greatest common divisor of urban and rural governance demands, improve the social governance structure at the county level, fully absorb social forces, expand the field and scope of residents' participation in governance, and inject more powerful momentum into urban-rural integrated governance.

Take the county as the hub to promote the joint improvement of urban and rural governance capabilities. The main body to promote the integration of urban and rural governance at the county level includes two aspects: one is the grassroots cadres, and the other is the grassroots people. To stimulate the initiative of these two groups of people to participate in governance, improve the effectiveness of their participation in governance, and enhance the ability of urban and rural governance at the county level, it is necessary to focus on three key points. The first is to improve the normalization mechanism of two-way exchanges between county (city) and township cadres. The integration function of the county can be achieved by dispatching cadres from the top to the bottom to grasp the logic of upper-level governance and the logic of grass-roots governance, so as to promote the consistency of urban and rural governance ideas. For cadres who are transferred down to work in townships and townships, emphasis is placed on posts related to specific affairs related to grassroots governance, such as land acquisition and storage, administrative law enforcement, and petition and stability maintenance. For cadres who are transferred to county (city) level departments, focus on arranging for law enforcement offices, project offices, and other departments related to governance and overall planning. The second is to cultivate the spirit of county cadres who dare to take responsibility, are willing to learn, and are good at innovation. With the frequent occurrence of social contradictions and the in-depth adjustment of the pattern of interests, the differences between urban and rural areas are becoming more and more complex. In the face of the obstruction problem in the integration of urban and rural governance, county cadres should break the inherent thinking, have the courage to try innovative methods, continue to learn, and improve their ability to deal with difficulties and challenges, especially pay attention to improving their ability to solve problems in practice, and in accordance with the requirements of "what to do, what to learn" and "what to make up for what is missing", strengthen and weaken, make up for shortcomings, fill in the blanks, eliminate blind spots, and assume the responsibility of urban and rural governance integration. The third is to make whole-process people's democracy a way of life for the people. Grassroots governance is the underlying mechanism of urban-rural integration, and its democratic nature is more reflected in residents' participation in activities, that is, multiple subjects can achieve the goal of "good governance" through participation on the basis of following rules. Therefore, at the county level, democratic consultation should be regarded as an important starting point for urban and rural governance, broaden the feedback channels of social conditions and public opinions, improve the system of openness, protect the public's right to know, and run the whole process of people's democracy through it, so as to promote the common values of urban and rural governance, the integration of governance structures, and the connection of governance processes.