How to Innovate Rural Governance by Separating Politics from Economics

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 2 (Dispatch) - The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Deepening Rural Reform," which is the top-level design for our country's current rural reform and a key deployment during a critical period for rural economic and social development. What new highlights does the plan contain? What new reform information does it release? Xinhua reporters interviewed relevant experts at the first opportunity.

Accelerating the Revision of the Land Contracting Law

"Reform cannot have each group singing its own tune and shouting its own slogans. Today, as interest relationships grow increasingly complex, rural reform must be coordinated, planned and implemented as a whole." This is the view of Ye Xingqing, director of the Rural Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

The plan issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council makes this clear. The plan points out that rural reform must establish systematic thinking, do a good job of overall planning and top-level design, accurately identify the key link and principal contradiction that affect the whole situation once touched, and further improve the scientific nature of rural reform decision-making.

Ye Xingqing believes that the next step will see further progress in the land contracting and operation system and the reform of the rural collective property rights system, and that revisions to related laws such as the Land Contracting Law and the Property Law are expected to accelerate.

Advancing the Confirmation of Collective Assets to Households

At present, problems in our country's rural collective assets, such as unclear ownership, unclear rights and responsibilities, lax protection and poor circulation, have become prominent. How can rural "sleeping assets" be brought to life?

"On the path of a market economy, clarifying property rights is an unavoidable topic. The clearer rural collective property rights are, the stronger the vitality of the rural market will be." Wang Yukai, a professor at the National Academy of Governance, believes that the reform of our country's rural collective property rights system is relatively lagging, which on the one hand prevents the potential of various rural factors from being activated, and on the other hand is not conducive to protecting farmers' lawful rights.

⟦NL> This plan places emphasis on this issue. The plan proposes that to establish and improve a rural collective property rights system that meets the requirements of the socialist market economy system and the reality of the primary stage of socialism, it is necessary to take protecting the rights of members of farmers' collective economic organizations as the core, and to focus on clarifying the ownership of rural collective property rights and granting farmers more property rights…… ensuring that the fruits of collective economic development benefit all members of the collective.

"Vigorously advancing the reform of the rural collective property rights system is conducive to expanding sources of farmers' property income and to establishing a long-term mechanism for increasing farmers' incomes." Ye Xingqing believes that further liberalizing land operation rights, carrying out pilot projects for collective operational construction land to enter the market, and advancing the confirmation of collective assets to households will all become highlights of future reform.

Vigorously Supporting New-Type Professional Farmers

Grain production relies on the "386199" force, aging agricultural labor, a lack of successors in agriculture, low production efficiency……

In response, the plan proposes attracting young people to farm, cultivating new-type professional farmers, and building a high-quality team of new-type agricultural production and operation operators. It proposes accelerating the cultivation of new-type agricultural operation entities such as family farms, specialized large households, farmers' cooperatives and leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization.

"Compared with small farmers, new-type agricultural operation entities such as family farms and specialized large households have certain production funds and scale, can carry out scaled operations, and have relatively considerable returns, which can solve the problem of 'who will farm the land'; while professional farmers understand technology and are good at management, and can also solve the problem of 'how to farm the land,' which is conducive to the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture." This was said by Dang Guoying, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Experts point out that the plan conveys a strong signal that the state will vigorously support new-type professional farmers and new-type operation entities, and it is expected that related policies such as fiscal, tax and financial policies will clearly tilt in this direction in the next step.

Investment Continues to Tilt Toward Agriculture and Rural Areas

On the one hand, the growth rate of national fiscal revenue has slowed markedly; on the other hand, international grain prices remain low. Should investment in "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" still be increased? How should the agricultural support and protection system be reformed?

"In recent years, with consecutive years of national grain harvests and continuously falling international grain prices, some people believe that the state's support for agriculture can be weakened. But the document proposes that agricultural investment should only increase and not decrease, and that agricultural support and protection should continue to be strengthened, reflecting the central government's policy intention not to relax work on 'agriculture, rural areas and farmers' and to ensure agriculture's position as the top priority." This was said by Zheng Fengtian, vice dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China.

The plan clearly proposes establishing a stable growth mechanism for investment in agriculture and rural areas. It treats agriculture and rural areas as a priority area for fiscal expenditure, continues to tilt central budget investment toward agriculture and rural areas, and ensures that investment in agriculture and rural areas only increases and does not decrease.

Rural Governance as the Highlight

The plan points out that in areas carrying out reform of the rural collective property rights system and establishing rural joint-stock cooperative economic organizations, explorations should be made to strip the village "two committees" of their functions in the operation and management of collective assets, and trials should be carried out to implement the "separation of politics from economics." "Rural governance is the highlight of future rural reform. The central document proposes 'separation of politics from economics' for the first time, drawing on the experience of state-owned enterprise reform, which is conducive to preserving and increasing the value of rural collective assets and to realizing the modernization of rural governance capacity and the governance system." Zheng Fengtian said.