Ministry of Finance: Progress of Comprehensive Rural Reform in 2015
2015 was a key year for comprehensively deepening reform, the opening year for comprehensively advancing the rule of law, and the concluding year for fully completing the “12th Five-Year Plan”. With the joint efforts of all localities and relevant parties, comprehensive rural reform across the country advanced steadily and achieved positive progress.
In 2015, the central government allocated 33.1 billion yuan in transfer payments for comprehensive rural reform, providing financial security for the smooth advancement of reform.
I. Strengthening top-level design and clarifying the overall tasks of comprehensive rural reform during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period
From November 12 to 13, the National Symposium on Comprehensive Rural Reform was held in Hebi, Henan. The meeting earnestly studied the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, summarized and reviewed the work of comprehensive rural reform during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, conducted an in-depth analysis of the current situation facing reform, clarified the main tasks for deepening comprehensive rural reform during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, and arranged and deployed the work of comprehensive rural reform for the current and future periods. The meeting clarified the overall tasks of comprehensive rural reform during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period: First, focus on breaking through the dilemma of transforming rural relations of production and explore new paths for developing rural productive forces. Do a good job in the pilot program for supporting the development of village-level collective economies, explore the establishment of a new mechanism for rural collective economic development, and address the issue of appropriately scaled agricultural operations. Improve the policy for guaranteeing operating funds for village-level organizations, explore the establishment of a new mechanism for rural governance, and promote stability and harmony in rural society. Innovate the mechanism for fiscal support for the development of farmers' cooperatives, improve the new agricultural socialized service system, and explore the establishment of a new agricultural operating system. Second, focus on breaking through the institutional obstacles of the urban-rural dual structure and explore a new mechanism for coordinating urban and rural development. Give play to the institutional advantages of democratic decision-making and rewards in place of subsidies, expand the scope of application of the fiscal reward and subsidy mechanism based on the "one case one discussion" approach, further improve the rural living environment, and establish a new mechanism for the development of rural public welfare undertakings. Expand the pilot scope of rural public service operation and maintenance, explore the building of rural public service platforms, carry out pilot programs for the standardization of rural public services, and establish a new mechanism for the supply of rural public services. With demonstration pilots for designated towns and beautiful countryside construction pilots as the starting point, do a good job in organically linking new urbanization with new rural construction, and establish a new mechanism for coordinated urban-rural development. Third, focus on breaking through the bottlenecks of rural resources and environment and explore new models for sustainable agricultural and rural development. Implement the strategy of sustainable agricultural development, coordinate pilot exploration with demonstration and promotion, explore and summarize replicable and promotable models, increase investment, establish long-term mechanisms, and expand the pilot scope of sustainable agricultural development. Accelerate the construction of harmless treatment facilities for rural domestic sewage and garbage, carry out pilot programs for the comprehensive utilization of agricultural and rural waste such as livestock and poultry manure, actively explore solutions to the problem of agricultural non-point source pollution, and establish a new mechanism for sustainable rural development. Fourth, focus on breaking through the drawbacks of the rural factor market system and explore new channels for realizing rural property rights and powers. Support the work of confirming, registering, and certifying rural land contractual management rights, explore the establishment of various forms of rural property rights transfer and trading markets and service platforms, stabilize farmers' expectations for land operation, and increase farmers' property income.
II. Strengthening standardized guidance for the fiscal reward and subsidy work based on the "one case one discussion" approach and establishing a sound new mechanism for rural deliberation and action
In accordance with the overall requirements of "guarding the soul, eliminating blind spots, highlighting key points, and standardizing operations," we continued to carry out in depth the fiscal reward and subsidy work based on the "one case one discussion" approach for village-level public welfare undertaking construction, further improving the rural living environment. After several years of exploration and practice, we have initially established a new mechanism for rural public welfare undertaking construction that takes farmer democratic deliberation as the premise, uses public assistance for private undertakings as the means, is oriented to farmers' needs, and encourages and guides farmers to raise funds and contribute labor through fiscal rewards and subsidies. This has achieved an organic combination of farmer democratic decision-making and government rewards and subsidies, mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for self-reliance in changing the backward appearance of rural areas, found a practical handle for grassroots officials to serve farmers, and become an important decision-making platform and an effective institutional innovation for new rural construction, winning widespread welcome and heartfelt support from grassroots officials and farmer masses. At the same time, this system has also provided a good foundational platform and reference experience for other agriculture- and village-related projects such as reservoir resettlement and poverty alleviation and development, improving the efficiency of project implementation and farmers' enthusiasm for actively participating in management and maintenance. In 2015, the central government allocated 22.405 billion yuan to support the fiscal reward and subsidy funds based on the "one case one discussion" approach. At the same time, in accordance with the standard of 1.5 million yuan per village, 1.35 billion yuan in transfer payments for comprehensive rural reform was issued to support the protection work of 900 traditional villages included in the scope of central government support.
III. Carrying out pilot programs to support village-level collective economies and exploring effective forms of realizing the rural collective economy
The rural collective economy is an important manifestation of the socialist public ownership economy in rural areas. With profound changes in the rural economy and society and the accelerating pace of marketization, village-level collective economic development in some places has lagged noticeably, making it difficult to preserve and increase the value of collective assets, resources, and funds, and village collectives lack the capacity for self-development and self-protection. In order to develop and strengthen village-level collective economies, cultivate new growth points in the rural economy, and consolidate rural grassroots political power, the Ministry of Finance issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the Guiding Opinions on Piloting Support for the Development of Village-Level Collective Economies," clarifying that starting from 2016, the central government would select 13 provinces including Hebei and Liaoning to carry out pilot work supporting the development of village-level collective economies. The pilots adhere to the combination of self-reliance and policy support, aim to enhance the strength of village-level collective economies and achieve common prosperity for farmers, uphold the principles of collective ownership, market orientation, reform and innovation, adapting measures to local conditions, and village leadership, take the effective utilization of rural collective assets, resources, funds, and other factors as the link, take land share cooperation and agricultural production and operation cooperation as the main forms of operation, explore multiple forms of realizing the collective economy such as effective resource utilization, service provision, property management, and mixed operations, give play to the superiority of the village-level collective economy, mobilize the enthusiasm of village collective members, and enhance the village collective's capacity and level of self-development, self-service, and self-management. The central government supports local pilot work through rewards in place of subsidies. At the same time, pilot areas are required to strengthen institutional and mechanism innovation, improve the internal management system of village collectives, strengthen the comprehensive supporting effect of policies, and ensure that the pilots achieve practical results.
IV. Coordinating the pilot demonstration construction of beautiful countryside and designated towns and exploring the establishment of a new mechanism for linked urban-rural development
(1) Steadily advancing the pilot work of beautiful countryside construction, focusing on improving the rural living environment. The 18th CPC National Congress required that ecological civilization construction be placed in a prominent position and that efforts be made to build a beautiful China. A beautiful China requires not only beautiful cities but also beautiful rural areas. Since 2013, in places with the conditions, we have actively and steadily advanced beautiful countryside construction pilots and organized and implemented a number of beautiful countryside construction pilot projects featuring "beautiful villages, thriving industries, prosperous farmers, and sustainability." Pilot areas have taken road hardening, sanitation purification, village lighting, environmental beautification, and happy living as their goals, adhered to planning guidance, government leadership, and farmer principal status, and focused on enhancing rural functions in areas such as leisure tourism, ecological environmental protection, cultural inheritance, and specialty agriculture. According to statistics, in 2015, the central government invested 2.945 billion yuan to support beautiful countryside construction, and a number of beautiful countryside areas suitable for living, working, and traveling became local brands and calling cards for economic and social development. On April 29, 2015, together with the Standardization Administration of China, we officially released the "Guidelines for the Construction of Beautiful Countryside," clarifying the "greatest common denominator" of the overall direction and basic requirements for beautiful countryside construction, stipulating 21 quantitative indicators in areas such as village construction, ecological environment, economic development, and public services, standardizing the basic elements of beautiful countryside, and providing framework-oriented and directional technical guidance for beautiful countryside construction. At the same time, the standard reserved room for free development for the individualized development of villages, encouraging all localities to innovate and develop in light of local conditions according to rural resource endowments.
(2) Smoothly launching the pilot demonstration of designated towns and exploring a new model of farmers' local urbanization. In 2014, in accordance with the spirit of the Central Conference on New Urbanization, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly carried out pilot demonstration work for designated towns. A total of 90 designated towns across the country were included in the pilot scope. In 2015, the central government allocated 1.83 billion yuan to continue supporting the pilot demonstration work of designated towns. All localities, in light of local realities, took problems as the guide, policies as the direction, and practical results as the goal, adopted methods such as competitive project selection, reasonably selected pilot towns, clarified target tasks, highlighted key content, and in particular conducted active exploration around innovating the institutional mechanisms for integrated urban-rural development, the rural public service supply mechanism, the investment and financing system of designated towns, and optimizing the industrial development environment. From the perspective of some pilot areas, the development thinking of pilot towns has become clearer, industrial advantages have been strengthened, infrastructure and public service capacity have made considerable progress, and capacities for sustainable development, comprehensive carrying capacity, and leading rural areas through cities have been further enhanced, with pilot results beginning to emerge.
V. Actively advancing related reform matters and exploring new ways to solve key problems
(1) Coordinating the demonstration pilots for comprehensive rural reform. In 2015, the central government allocated 3.07 billion yuan to support the demonstration pilot work of comprehensive rural reform. The central government supported 11 provinces in carrying out pilot programs for rural public service operation and maintenance mechanisms in 109,000 administrative villages. Among them, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Ningxia applied additional pressure on their own and achieved full pilot coverage, effectively solving the difficult problem of rural public service operation and maintenance that farmers strongly reported. Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and 6 other provinces carried out pilots for a new agricultural socialized service system, actively exploring how to give full play to the role of market mechanisms through government purchase of services, establish a new mechanism for agricultural socialized services organically combining agriculture, science, and education, and solve the "last mile" problem of agricultural technology services. Zhejiang, Anhui, and Guangdong, with counties and districts as units, selected some counties and districts to carry out pilot reforms of the rural property rights system, such as confirming, registering, and certifying rural collective property rights and exploring the establishment of rural collective property rights transfer and trading markets. Zhejiang and Ningxia explored and carried out pilots supporting the development and growth of village collective economies, encouraging village collectives to develop and strengthen their strength through preferential policies supporting the development of property economy and specialty industries, and improving collective organizations' capacity for self-protection and self-development.
(2) Prudently carrying out pilot reforms of the social functions of state-owned farms. In 2015, the central government allocated 1.5 billion yuan to continue supporting 17 provinces in carrying out pilot reforms of the social functions of state-owned farms. Through reform, pilot areas gradually transferred the social functions undertaken by local state-owned farms to local government management and social handling, rationalized relations, reduced burdens, and enhanced the vitality of farm economic development.
In 2016, we will, in accordance with the country's “13th Five-Year Plan” development approach, effectively implement the development concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing, grasp the development situation, clarify reform requirements, innovate the institutional mechanisms for integrated urban-rural development, and promote comprehensive rural reform to achieve practical results.