Top-level Design for Rural Reform Unveiled; Land Reform to Explore Voluntary Paid Exit from Homestead Land
The recent release of two important documents has set the direction and path for China's rural reform and development in the coming years.
In the proposal for the “13th Five-Year Plan” released on November 3, regarding rural reform and development policy, it was proposed: stabilize rural land contracting relationships, improve the method of separating land ownership, contracting rights and management rights, advance the orderly transfer of land management rights in accordance with the law, and build a policy system for cultivating new types of agricultural business entities. Train new-type professional farmers. Deepen the reform of the rural land system.
Just one day before the release of the plan proposal (November 2), the “Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Deepening Rural Reform” (hereinafter referred to as the “Implementation Plan”) was released, making clear that deepening rural reform should focus on five major areas: the rural collective property rights system, the agricultural operation system, the agricultural support and protection system, the institutional mechanisms for integrated urban-rural development, and the rural social governance system.
It is understood that collective for-profit construction land, on the premise of complying with planning, use control and lawful acquisition, may be transferred, leased or used as equity contributions; for homestead land, a paid use system and a voluntary paid exit mechanism will be explored.
Property rights system reform ranks first
A reporter from China Business Journal noted that the “Implementation Plan” put forward 5 key areas and 26 major measures, the first of which is deepening the reform of the rural collective property rights system, showing its foundational significance for the entire rural economic system.
⟦NL> The reform of the rural collective property rights system mainly involves three major aspects: cultivated land, rural non-resource for-profit operating assets, and rural non-operating collective assets.
The main part of the rural collective economy is cultivated land. According to the results of the second detailed land survey, China currently retains 2.02 billion mu of cultivated land, of which about 200 million mu is not very stable. At present, 230 million rural households in China have contracted collective land.
“How to further clarify the property rights system for cultivated land is a very big problem we face at present.” Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group and director of its office, said on November 4.
The “Implementation Plan” proposed that, on the basis of confirming the membership status of rural collective economic organizations and comprehensively verifying rural collective assets, for resource-based assets such as land, the focus should be on firmly and effectively carrying out the registration and certification of land contractual management rights.
It is understood that, in accordance with the requirements of the central government, many places have piloted the registration and certification system for rural land contractual management rights, and this work has now been in pilot stage for three years.
Chen Xiwen said that, judging from the current situation, progress has been very smooth. At present, the number of provinces carrying out pilots across the whole province has reached 12.
“By June this year, 260 million mu of farmers' contracted cultivated land nationwide had already had their contractual management rights clarified, and in some cases certificates began to be issued. Through registration and certification, farmers' land contractual management rights are stabilized for the long term, the nature of usufructuary rights is clarified, and farmers' property rights are protected.” Chen Xiwen said.
In addition to advancing the confirmation of rural collective assets to households by category, this reform will also carry out a shareholding cooperative reform of for-profit operating assets.
“Regarding rural non-resource for-profit operating assets, in the past people talked more about township and village enterprises; now this more often includes property management economies and logistics economies that occupy rural land and were established using investment from the rural collective economy.” Chen Xiwen said that this involves assets worth several trillion yuan, and in the past it was indeed poorly managed in some places, controlled by a small number of people, and farmers did not share in the benefits.
In response, the “Implementation Plan” proposed that, through shareholding cooperative reform, collective for-profit operating assets should be confirmed to every household and every farmer in a form recognized by ordinary people.
As for non-operating assets, the “Implementation Plan” proposed focusing on exploring effective mechanisms for unified collective operation and management that help improve public service capacity.
It is understood that some kindergartens, primary schools, clinics and the like all belong to rural non-operating collective assets. Chen Xiwen said that at the current stage the “Implementation Plan” proposes improving their efficiency and better providing public services to farmers.
Exploring voluntary paid exit from homestead land
The reform of China's rural land system has long attracted much attention.
In January 2015, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council jointly issued the “Opinions on the Pilot Work for Reform of Rural Land Expropriation, Market Entry of Collective For-Profit Construction Land, and the Homestead Land System,” and decided to select about 30 county-level administrative regions across the country for pilots. In February that followed, 33 county-level administrative regions including Daxing District in Beijing, Jixian County in Tianjin, and Dingzhou City in Hebei Province were selected as pilot areas. The pilot work is currently being advanced.
Recently some media reported that the implementation plans for rural land reform in the 33 county-level pilot areas had been approved. This means that the pilot work for rural land reform has entered a stage of full launch.
This “Implementation Plan” further clarified the reform path for the pilots on rural land expropriation, market entry of collective for-profit construction land, and reform of the homestead land system: reform of the rural land expropriation system will narrow the scope of land expropriation, standardize land expropriation procedures, improve reasonable, standardized and diversified protection mechanisms for farmers whose land is expropriated, establish a distribution mechanism for land value-added gains that takes into account the state, the collective and individuals, and reasonably increase individual income; reform of the collective for-profit construction land system allows existing rural collective construction land for for-profit uses to enjoy equal rights with state-owned construction land and, on the premise of complying with planning, use control and lawful acquisition, to be transferred, leased or used as equity contributions, while improving market transaction rules, service supervision systems and reasonable distribution mechanisms for land value-added gains.
At the same time, reform of the homestead land system will clearly define farmers' property rights in housing, explore a paid use system for homestead land and a voluntary paid exit mechanism, and explore effective channels for mortgage, guarantee and transfer of farmers' property rights in housing.
But Chen Xiwen also acknowledged that some content in land system reform conflicts with the current legal system. With the approval of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, pilots are being carried out in these 33 areas, and the pilot period ends at the end of 2017. Within this period, relevant legal provisions involved within the pilot scope will temporarily not be applied. After the pilots end and the pilot results are evaluated, it will then be determined whether to amend the law or restore the original law for implementation. At present, these tasks are all underway.
Cultivating new-type professional farmers
In the proposal for the “13th Five-Year Plan” reviewed and approved at this Fifth Plenary Session, the formulation of promoting agricultural populations to settle in cities with their whole families has attracted much attention.
The proposal put forward advancing a new type of urbanization centered on people. Deepen reform of the household registration system, promote agricultural migrant populations who are able to obtain stable employment and life in cities and towns to settle in cities with their whole families, and enjoy equal rights and obligations with urban residents.
“This is not simply issuing him a household registration booklet and saying you are now an urban citizen. The most important thing behind this is that he must be able to enjoy public services equal to those of urban residents.” Han Jun, deputy director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, explained that in the content of the “Implementation Plan” on “institutional mechanisms for integrated urban-rural development,” one of the most difficult tasks is advancing the citizenization process of migrant workers. But how fast the whole process is depends on many conditions, such as the provision of public services and financial conditions.
Han Jun said that many provinces have currently issued relevant policies to create conditions so that more and more children accompanying agricultural migrant populations can take the high school entrance examination and college entrance examination in cities. In terms of housing security, in the future migrant workers entering cities should also receive treatment equal to that of urban residents.
The reporter noted that the “Implementation Plan” proposed expanding the coverage of migrant workers participating in urban social security and fully incorporating the agricultural migrant population that settles in cities into the urban social security system. Improve policies for the transfer and continuation of social security relationships.
It is understood that last year China's urbanization rate was 54.8%, meaning that more than 45% of the population still lived in rural areas, and more than 600 million people still lived in rural areas.
On the one hand, urbanization is advancing; on the other hand, as rural areas age faster than cities, agriculture in many regions will face the severe situation of a lack of successors.
Therefore, the Fifth Plenary Session and the “Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Rural Reform” specifically proposed making the cultivation of new-type professional farmers a strategic measure for vigorously advancing agricultural modernization.
“This policy is very clear. In recent years, many regions have also been exploring how to solve the problem of who will farm the land. Most importantly, we still need to keep some young people in rural areas, especially keep middle-aged people in rural areas.” Han Jun believes that new-type professional farmers do not necessarily all have to farm; they can also provide services or engage in rural tourism.
The proposal for the “13th Five-Year Plan” put forward “building a policy system for cultivating new types of agricultural business entities.” Han Jun said that the Fifth Plenary Session proposed deepening rural financial reform and improving the agricultural insurance system. Farmers engaged in agriculture face natural risks and market risks, and cultivating new-type professional farmers requires these supporting policies to keep up.