How Will the State Farm Reform Proceed? Ministry of Agriculture Official Explains the Localization of State Farms

Economic Daily, Beijing, December 7 (Reporter Chang Li) The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Further Advancing the Reform and Development of State Farms" was recently issued. At a press conference held today by the State Council Information Office, Yang Shaopin, a member of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Agriculture, answered reporters' questions on hot issues such as the reform of the social functions undertaken by farms.

In the process of state farm reform, an important issue is that farms must run both enterprises and social services. In response, the "Opinions" proposed that adhering to the separation of social functions from enterprises is the direction of reform.

⟦NL> Starting in 2012, the state launched a pilot reform of the social functions undertaken by farms. At present, the transfer of public security, procuratorial and judicial functions of state farms has been basically completed, and most basic education and health institutions have also been transferred. However, state-owned farms have regional characteristics and differ from other industrial and commercial enterprises, so social functions are often separated in name but not in reality, and in the short term it is difficult to adopt a simple cutting method to transfer them all out. Therefore, the "Opinions" proposed that the direction of separating social functions from enterprises must be adhered to, and the industrialization of production and operation and the "localization" of social management of state-owned farms must be advanced.

Yang Shaopin explained that "localization" means transferring social management matters to local government management, striving to transfer the social management functions undertaken by state-owned farms to local government management in about 3 years. At the same time, taking into account the actual situation of state farms, for state-owned farms far from central towns and lacking the conditions for transfer, it is permitted to adopt reform methods such as authorized entrustment, purchasing services, and separation of management from operation. Social functions can be run by the farm, but the government must run them through methods such as authorized entrustment or purchasing services.

"Advancing the reform of the social functions undertaken by state-owned farms is fundamentally about straightening out the relationship between the farm and the government and between social functions and enterprises, and incorporating matters that fall under government functions into the scope of public financial security. Only in this way can the social functions of farms be separated out, truly allowing farms to put down their burdens and improve their market competitiveness. This is conducive to the better development of farms and also promotes the better development of the social undertakings of farms." Yang Shaopin said.