Source: Economic Daily
The mainland is a large developing country with unbalanced development of urban and rural areas. Promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural areas is an important strategic measure related to the overall situation, and an important part of implementing the new development concept and building a modern economic system. The Central Economic Work Conference clearly stated that "promote urban-rural integration and coordinated regional development" and "give full play to the comparative advantages of various regions, actively integrate into and serve the construction of a new development pattern in accordance with the main function positioning". On the new journey, it is necessary to promote the common prosperity of all people, strengthen strategic coordination, and achieve a higher level and higher quality of regional coordinated development.
Scientifically grasp the two major themes of regional development
Coordinated development and high-quality development are the two important themes facing the development of the mainland region, which promote each other and are closely linked, and need to be organically combined. On the one hand, high-quality development is the development that embodies the new development concept. One of the core contents of coordinated development in the new development concept is coordinated regional development. Therefore, regional coordinated development itself is an important content and intrinsic feature of regional high-quality development. On the other hand, high-quality development is a universal requirement for all regions, whether developed or underdeveloped, they must implement the new development concept and take the path of high-quality development, and the requirements of high-quality development set the direction for regional coordinated development at all levels. Coordinated development between regions is also conducive to the high-quality development of various regions. To this end, it is necessary to integrate the requirements of high-quality development into the regional coordinated development strategy, establish a linkage and cohesion mechanism between regional coordinated development and regional high-quality development, and promote the formation of a new pattern of simultaneous regional high-quality development and coordinated development.
Coordinating regional coordinated development and regional high-quality development is an important task in the new development stage, and the core is to build a new pattern of regional coordinated development that is higher-level, more efficient, fairer and more sustainable. A higher level means that the coordinated regional development we need is not a low-level equilibrium, but a high-level comprehensive coordination; more efficient means giving full play to the joint role of an effective market and a promising government, promoting regional coordinated development in an all-round way in the process of achieving high efficiency, and gradually narrowing regional disparities; more equitable means giving equal development opportunities and rights to all regions, placing more emphasis on the balanced allocation of public resources and sharing of development results, and accelerating the equalization of basic public services and the equalization of residents' income; and more sustainable means adhering to the priority of ecologyand green development, promote the harmonious coexistence of man and nature in all regions, promote the adaptation of population, economic development and the carrying capacity of resources and environment, and achieve sustainable and coordinated development.
To coordinate regional high-quality development and coordinated development, it is necessary to rely on the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other regions to cultivate a number of competitive and influential central cities, metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations, promote the formation of a power source system that can support high-quality development, and inject new momentum into high-quality economic development; In addition, narrowing the regional development gap is a long-term and gradual process, and it is necessary to gradually narrow the regional development gap in the process of promoting high-quality development, so as to achieve coordinated regional development at a higher level.
Intensify the overall planning of regional coordinated development
Urban and rural areas are two different types of geographical spaces, and in a broad sense, the coordinated development of urban and rural areas can also be regarded as an integral part of regional coordinated development. In recent years, the mainland has implemented the strategy of regional coordinated development, major regional strategy, main functional area strategy, new urbanization strategy and rural revitalization strategy at the national level, all of which have assumed the function of promoting regional coordinated development to a certain extent, and are important measures to promote urban-rural integration and regional coordinated development. However, due to the different functional positioning and development goals of these strategies in the national strategic system, it is necessary to do a good job in top-level design, effectively increase the intensity of strategic convergence and overall planning, and enhance the accuracy and orientation consistency of regional policies, so that they can form a strong synergy.
The strategy of regional coordinated development, the strategy of major regional areas and the strategy of main functional areas are the main strategies to promote regional development. In a narrow sense, the regional coordinated development strategy refers to the overall strategy of regional development, which requires the in-depth promotion of the large-scale development of the western region, the comprehensive revitalization of the northeast, the rise of the central region, the development of the eastern part of the country, the support of special types of regions to accelerate development, and the implementation of the strategic arrangement of land and sea coordination, etc., which plays a core and fundamental role in the national strategic system of promoting regional coordinated development. Broadly speaking, the strategy of regional coordinated development refers to the general term of various regional strategies with coordination functions at the national level. A major regional strategy is a development strategy formulated for an important region of overall significance. At present, the major regional strategies implemented by the state include the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. The strategy of main functional zones clarifies the positioning and development orientation of the main functions of various regions, and standardizes and optimizes the pattern of land space development and protection through the implementation of differentiated spatial control, development paths and regional policies, which is conducive to the complementary advantages, reasonable division of labor and coordinated development of each main functional area. The new urbanization strategy and the rural revitalization strategy are the two wheels to promote urban-rural integration and coordinated development, and both have the function of promoting regional coordinated development. For example, under the people-oriented new urbanization strategy, the optimization of the scale and spatial pattern of urbanization is undoubtedly an important way to promote the coordinated development of the region, and the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy is an important measure to promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. Under the new situation, it is necessary to take the major regional strategy as the guide, the overall regional development strategy as the foundation, the main functional area strategy as the guide, the new urbanization strategy as the framework, and the rural revitalization strategy as the focus to strengthen the overall cohesion between the strategies, enhance the synergy, coupling and consistency of the strategies, and give full play to their superposition, synergy and integration effects.
It is necessary to better play the positive role of the promising government, strengthen the division of responsibilities between the central and local governments, and build a multi-level regional coordinated development regulation and control system on the basis of establishing and improving an effective market mechanism. It is necessary to further increase the transfer payment of the central government, give full play to the leading role of the central government, and adopt a combination of policy measures to promote regional coordinated development at the national level. Provincial governments shoulder the important task of promoting the coordinated development of regions within the province. Prefecture-level cities and county-level governments also need to pay close attention to narrowing the development gap within the region, coordinate the coordinated development of central urban areas and counties, and support underdeveloped towns and economically weak villages to accelerate development.
Explore new strategic measures towards common prosperity
Chinese modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all people, and it is also the modernization of the whole region, including both urban and rural areas, as well as developed areas, underdeveloped areas, and border areas for the old and the young. The whole people mentioned here are urban and rural residents and residents of various regions. From a spatial point of view, common prosperity for all people means that urban and rural residents and residents in all regions should be prosperous, and gradually realize common prosperity in urban and rural areas, that is, common prosperity in all regions. The common prosperity of the whole region is the meaning of the common prosperity of all people, and it is also its spatial embodiment.
Human production and life are inseparable from space. The common prosperity of the whole region emphasizes that both urban and rural areas should be rich, not just a few areas, not just a few developed regions and cities, and that common development and universal prosperity should be achieved in space. From the perspective of common prosperity, it is necessary to break through the traditional linear mindset, respect people's wishes and their employment and residence choices, take into account the multi-dimensional goal of regional coordinated development, and seek new strategic measures for common prosperity in the whole region. First, on the basis of the carrying capacity of regional resources and environment, it is necessary to carry out ecological relocation in areas with poor ecological conditions where "one side of the water and soil cannot support one person", and it is also necessary to guide the evacuation of those metropolitan areas whose population is over-inflated and exceeds their resource and environmental carrying capacity. Second, adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, allocate and optimize public resources according to the permanent population, and promote the equalization of basic public services and the balanced allocation of public resources. Third, sustained and stable growth of the regional economy is still very important, and it is necessary to rely on comprehensively deepening reform to stimulate the endogenous driving force of regional economic development, especially to accelerate the development of county economy and underdeveloped areas in a more important position, and constantly expand its new space for economic growth. Fourth, we should give full play to the advantages of each region, establish an industrial system with its own characteristics, provide more adequate employment opportunities and jobs for residents in each region, and realize the equalization of income and quality of life of residents in each region.
From the perspective of a larger spatial scope, to achieve global common prosperity, it is also necessary to consider the coordination of population, economy, resources and environment, and promote the formation of a new pattern of land space development and protection. It is generally believed that the market mechanism is the basic mechanism for the coordinated development of regions, and the spatial efficiency mainly depends on the market mechanism to achieve it, and the decisive role of the market in the allocation of space resources should be brought into play. The government's regional policies will give more consideration to national security, sustainability and equity goals, and emphasize planning and layout guidance. At the national level, it is necessary to organically combine the transfer of industries with the transfer of population, promote the matching of industrial distribution and employment with population distribution throughout the country, and realize the coordination of economic development with population, resources and environment. At the specific regional level, it is necessary to follow the law of urban and rural development, rely on central cities, metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations, and take county towns as important carriers to promote people-oriented new urbanization, promote the coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns, build a new pattern of higher-quality urban-rural integration development, and realize regional coordinated development to a higher level and higher quality.
(Source of this article: Economic Daily Author: Wei Houkai The author is a special researcher at the Xi Jinping Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and director of the Institute of Rural Development)