The State Council recently issued the "Five-Year Action Plan for the In-depth Implementation of the People-Oriented New Urbanization Strategy", which proposes to promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas by proposing four major actions, 19 key tasks and relevant policies and measures, including the implementation of a new round of urbanization of the agricultural transfer population, the implementation of the urbanization level improvement action in potential areas, the implementation of the modern metropolitan area cultivation action, the implementation of urban renewal and the improvement of safety and resilience.
Urban-rural integration is an important symbol of Chinese modernization, and it is the key to breaking the dual structure, expanding the space for high-quality development, and achieving common prosperity for all people.
Grasp the dynamic evolution of urban-rural relations
Urban-rural integration should lay a solid foundation
In the more than 40 years since the reform and opening up, the rapid progress of industrialization and urbanization in the mainland has led to the development of agricultural modernization. In this dynamic evolution, changes in the employment structure of the labor force have given rise to migrant workers, with the total number of migrant workers in mainland China reaching 298 million in 2023. The level and quality of urbanization have steadily improved, and from 1978 to 2023, the urban population of mainland China has increased from 172.45 million to 932.67 million. Since the beginning of the new century, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the mainland has introduced a series of policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers around the actual needs of agriculture, rural areas, and peasants, and the industrial structure and employment structure in rural areas have been continuously optimized, creating a good situation for the integrated development of urban and rural areas.
From the perspective of global experience, the sustainable development of the national economy, the formulation and implementation of a regional strategy for balanced urban-rural development, and the tilt of support policies towards agriculture and rural areas are the common choices for narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas and realizing the coordinated development of urban-rural relations. The achievements made by the mainland have fully proved that the mainland already has the foundation and ability to promote the formation of a new type of industrial-peasant urban-rural relationship in which industry and agriculture promote each other, urban and rural areas complement each other, develop in a coordinated manner, and achieve common prosperity, and major changes have taken place in urban-rural relations.
In the next stage, it is necessary to continuously consolidate and expand the achievements that have been made, and promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas. First, it is necessary to further promote the all-round development of agriculture, rural areas, and peasants. We will continue to make unremitting efforts to do a good job in the "three rural" work, and firmly adhere to the bottom line of ensuring national food security and ensuring that there will be no large-scale return to poverty. Second, we must continue to promote urban empowerment and rural revitalization. Open up the institutional channel for the two-way flow of urban and rural elements, and smooth the economic cycle of urban and rural areas. While promoting the transfer of urban elements to the countryside, the urbanization of the agricultural transfer population should be placed in a prominent position, so that farmers can truly live and work in the city in peace and contentment, and promote a new type of urbanization with people as the core.
Confront the deep-seated contradictions
Break through the dual structure of urban and rural areas
The "Decision" adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that the integrated development of urban and rural areas is an inevitable requirement for Chinese-style modernization. It is necessary to coordinate the comprehensive revitalization of new industrialization, new urbanization and rural areas, comprehensively improve the level of integration of urban and rural planning, construction and governance, promote the equal exchange and two-way flow of urban and rural elements, narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, and promote the common prosperity and development of urban and rural areas.
In the process of formulating goals, planning paths, and designing policies, it is necessary to grasp the new situation facing the current urban-rural integration development, and strive to solve the existing structural, institutional, and institutional contradictions and problems.
1. Promote the division of labor in rural areas and avoid the involution of agricultural employment
The new type of urbanization should take the development of county towns as an important carrier and continuously improve the urbanization rate. We should further promote the division of labor in rural areas, continuously reduce the number of agricultural workers, avoid the involution of agricultural employment, and strive to achieve balanced changes in the employment structure of the national economy and the industrial structure of the national economy, so as to achieve the simultaneous development of the "four modernizations".
Vigorously develop the tertiary industry with the county seat as the carrier, and attract rural residents to migrate to the county seat. Through the establishment of industrial parks, we will promote the development of the private economy, explore flexible employment mechanisms, increase the attractiveness of the county to rural residents in the county, and realize the local employment and entrepreneurship of non-agricultural labor. Promote the economic development of the city through the economic development of the county, and then promote the integration of urban and rural areas at the provincial level.
At the same time, we will actively expand the space for rural employment, vigorously develop characteristic industries, rural tourism and rural service industries, guide the new generation of migrant workers to engage in new industries and new business forms, and thoroughly implement actions to improve the ability to return to their hometowns and start businesses, and promote rural employment and entrepreneurship.
2. Safeguard the interests of peasants and take the lead in realizing the urbanization of peasant workers
In order to break through the long-standing dual structure of urban and rural areas and avoid the separation of urban and rural areas and the one-way flow of factors, it is necessary to further deepen the reform of the household registration system, implement the system of providing basic public services through the registration of household registration in the place of permanent residence, strengthen investment in education, medical care, elderly care, housing and other fields, and further eliminate the institutional obstacles to the two-way flow of urban and rural elements.
Safeguard the legitimate land rights and interests of farmers who have settled in urban areas, safeguard their land contracting rights, homestead land use rights, and collective income distribution rights in accordance with the law, explore ways to establish voluntary paid withdrawal from the above rights, and firmly adhere to the bottom line of reform.
3. Deepen reform and activate the urban and rural factor markets
As far as activating the land element is concerned, it is necessary to grasp the policy of "separation of three rights" of rural land ownership, contracting rights, and management rights, and optimize the land management system and improve the efficiency of land output on the premise of strictly preventing the "non-agricultural" conversion of cultivated land, especially the "non-grain conversion".
As far as the mode of operation is concerned, vigorously developing family farms, farmers' cooperatives, agricultural enterprises, and various socialized service organizations, promoting farmers' cooperative management, promoting the linkage between the support policies for new agricultural business entities and driving the increase of farmers' income, and further deepening the organic connection between small farmers and the development of modern agriculture will be the inevitable choice for large-scale and specialized agriculture, especially grain production, in the future.
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Written by | Zhang Hongyu, President of China Agricultural Risk Management Research Association
Edit | Feng Xiaonan Yu Wanning
Editor-in-Chief | Wang Jiao
Producer丨Shu Jingjing, Liu Bing
Image source丨CCTV News