Construction of the rural property rights trading market is proceeding in an orderly manner
The property rights system is a fundamental economic system. In the new stage of China's transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, advancing the construction of the rural property rights trading market and accelerating the establishment of an important platform for allocating rural factor resources is an inevitable trend in modern agricultural development, and also a requirement for deepening the reform of the rural property rights system. Based on the reform practice of rural property rights trading market construction in Hubei Province, this paper summarizes the successful experience of rural property rights trading market development at home and abroad, and by analyzing the constraining factors existing in the construction of the rural property rights trading market in Hubei Province, puts forward countermeasures and suggestions for promoting the construction of China's rural property rights trading market.
Analysis of the Experience and Constraining Factors in the Construction of the Rural Property Rights Trading Market in Hubei Province
In the practice of advancing the construction of the rural property rights trading market, Hubei Province has consistently adhered to the overall principles of government promotion, legal guidance, clear property rights, and standardized transactions, and has actively explored the building of a multi-level, wide-coverage, multi-functional, and service-optimized rural property rights trading market platform. First, building township-level grassroots rural property rights trading service platforms; second, building city- and county-level comprehensive rural property rights trading platforms; third, building the Wuhan Rural Comprehensive Property Rights Exchange, which is based in Hubei, radiates across central and southern China, and faces the whole country, with a high level, multiple functions, and wide coverage; fourth, building a rural comprehensive property rights trading platform interconnected across the Wuhan "8+1" city circle.
Through an analysis of the current situation of the rural property rights trading market in Hubei Province, it was found that in the process of orderly advancing the construction of the rural property rights trading market, there also exist some constraining factors. (1) The attribution of rural property rights is still unclear, especially since the reform of shareholding in rural collective property rights has only just begun; (2) The positioning of the rural property rights trading market varies, and the issues of resource restructuring and scientific setup of the property rights trading market remain to be studied; (3) The legal definition of rural property rights circulation and mortgage is restricted; (4) Intermediary services for rural property rights transactions are not well established; (5) A coordination mechanism among rural property rights trading markets has not been established; (6) Function expansion, network interconnection, and supporting services remain to be improved; (7) A fundamental breakthrough has not yet been achieved in rural property rights mortgage financing, and the problem of difficulty in property rights financing remains relatively prominent; (8) The risk and dispute mediation mechanism for rural property rights transactions has not yet been fully established; (9) The level of activity in rural property rights transactions is insufficient, and the construction of a high-end capitalization market for property rights transactions needs to be further strengthened; (10) Rural property rights protection is inadequate, and the social security mechanism is not well established.
Experience and Insights from the Construction of Rural Property Rights Trading Markets at Home and Abroad
China's rural property rights are based on rural land, with farmland operation at the core. Its unique rights structure model of "land ownership——household contract rights——farmland operation rights" and the widespread problem of unclear ownership are relatively rare in other countries, which determines that the construction of China's rural property rights market contains many Chinese elements, with no ready-made experience to draw on.
From the domestic perspective, after beneficial exploration in recent years, the models of Wuhan, Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou have begun to take shape and possess certain characteristics, providing useful insights for building China's rural property rights trading market model: (1) With the confirmation of rights, land, and shares as the premise, clarify the foundation of rural property rights transactions; (2) Focus on building four-level service platforms at the province, city, county, and township levels to promote smooth circulation of rural property rights transactions; (3) Improve and standardize trading rules, and expand property rights service functions; (4) Extend supporting services, and create conditions for the capitalization of farmland and other property rights; (5) Strengthen government supervision, and reduce transaction risks.
⟦NL> From the international perspective, although land systems differ considerably among countries, the legal definition and circulation transactions of land and other property rights are consistent. From a global perspective, the replacement of traditional agriculture by modern agriculture is an unstoppable trend, and scaled operation is the external manifestation of this trend. The circulation and aggregation of land have made the separation of land ownership and use rights a common phenomenon, objectively requiring an effective market to efficiently realize this transformation and achieve the price discovery of rural property rights. In countries with a relatively high degree of marketization, there has not appeared market and market platform construction strongly led by governments at all levels as in China, yet their circulation transactions have remained orderly and efficient. The insights that foreign experience offers China can be summarized as: complete laws, policy guidance, clear property rights, developed intermediaries, and protection of interests. This has also become an important direction for the future construction of China's rural property rights trading market.
Countermeasures and Suggestions for Promoting the Construction of China's Rural Property Rights Trading Market
(1) Strengthen legal safeguards and build a legal institutional system for rural property rights
According to the current situation of rural property rights circulation in China, and in conjunction with existing relevant laws, revise the Agriculture Law, the Land Administration Law, the Property Law, and other laws and regulations to establish the exercising subject, procedures, conditions, supervision, and responsibility system of rural property rights, and through supporting administrative regulations and rules, ensure the legal operability of rural property rights circulation transactions.
(2) Strengthen government promotion and increase policy support
First, according to the actual conditions of each province and city, formulate construction guidelines for the rural property rights trading market; second, guarantee the fiscal budget funding input for trading market construction, and support the improvement of property rights market infrastructure and soft and hard environment conditions; third, determine the scope of varieties subject to mandatory market trading. The varieties subject to mandatory trading through market platforms should be controlled to a certain extent, mainly collective "three-capital" property rights and property rights that change land use. Fourth, formulate preferential policies to provide support.
(3) Establish and improve a multi-level, wide-coverage rural comprehensive property rights trading market system
At the national level, focus on establishing and improving a high-level, multi-functional, wide-coverage, nationwide interconnected rural property rights trading market system. At the local level, with provinces and cities as units, build a unified and interconnected rural comprehensive property rights trading market system supported by township-level basic service platforms, based on county- and city-level trading platforms, and led by provincial-level regional rural comprehensive property rights exchanges.
(4) Clarify functional positioning and unify construction standards
In the construction of the rural comprehensive property rights trading market, it is necessary to improve trading varieties, models, and rules as soon as possible, with emphasis on clarifying supporting services such as policy consultation, information release, price discovery, resource allocation, and investment and financing services for rural property rights transactions.
(5) Clarify property rights subjects and establish the foundation for transactions
The foremost task is to comprehensively advance the confirmation, registration, and certification of rural collective land rights, improve and perfect the "two certificates" system of land and other operation rights certificates and operation rights circulation certificates, and establish a rural property rights database.
(6) Actively explore market-oriented reform of the rural property rights system. First, vigorously promote the land shareholding cooperative system, encourage farmers to contribute their land contract operation rights as shares, and encourage rural collective economic organizations to contribute collective flexible land and "four wastelands" as shares to establish land shareholding cooperatives. Second, under the premise of complying with planning and use control, explore market entry trading of collective operating construction land and homestead land. Third, explore and advance the reform of the land expropriation system. The focus is on two reforms: (1) the transformation of farmers' land "expropriation" to "purchase by expropriation," changing the problem of the government expropriating at low prices, selling at high prices, and infringing on farmers' interests in disguised forms; (2) letting farmers share most of the income after land purchase by expropriation, which in principle should not be less than 60%.
(7) Strengthen the supporting underpinnings of the rural property rights trading market system
1. Establish a regulatory system for the rural property rights trading market. For example, establish a provincial-level committee for the construction and supervision of the province's rural property rights trading market, and each city and county should correspondingly establish a supervisory body at its own level. The rural property rights supervision committee is responsible for overall planning and for implementing supervision of market construction and trading activities.
2. Expand and improve the rural property rights functional system. In addition to rural land operation rights transactions and public bidding, auction, and listing, more trading varieties can also be expanded. Such as infrastructure bidding, public goods procurement, "agricultural orders" (similar to agricultural product futures), agricultural product spot goods, agricultural production materials, agricultural labor transfer employment, and employment, etc.
3. Establish a rural property rights transaction information service system. Explore information service models and information disclosure models for rural property rights transactions. Advance the construction of portal websites and trading platforms for the rural land property rights trading market, and gradually realize full-process online transactions including application, bidding registration, online listing, online bidding, and bid-winning announcement.
4. Establish a rural asset evaluation system. Together with financial institutions and evaluation agencies, explore methods and standards for evaluating rural assets and resources, set access thresholds, and establish a database of rural property rights evaluation agencies. Implement a certification system for rural asset appraisers, and establish a multi-level, full-coverage, professional, and standardized agricultural asset evaluation system.
5. Establish a rural property rights financing system. It is necessary to innovate service methods, set up financial service windows in rural property rights trading centers, and support various forms of rural property rights mortgage financing. Establish a risk-sharing mechanism in which financial institutions provide preferential loans, government finance provides interest subsidies, and policy-based agricultural guarantee companies provide low-fee guarantees.
6. Improve the rural property rights dispute mediation and handling system. Further improve the dispute mediation and handling mechanism of "village-level mediation, county-level arbitration, and judicial guarantee."
7. Build a new rural governance system. Innovate rural grassroots governance models, vigorously develop economic organizations such as rural economic cooperatives and joint-stock companies, separate them from the village "two committees" administrative organizations, and strengthen the rural collective economy.
(8) Improve the risk prevention mechanism for rural property rights transactions
1. Establish a standardized regulatory mechanism for the circulation of rural land and other property rights. The focus is on establishing and improving the access, exit, supervision, and risk guarantee fund systems for rural land circulation.
2. Improve the risk prevention and compensation mechanism for rural property rights mortgages. Explore the establishment of agricultural guarantee companies led by the government and jointly funded by banks, agricultural enterprises, credit guarantee institutions, and other parties, to provide guarantees and counter-guarantees for mortgage loans on rural land operation rights. Actively expand the coverage of policy-based agricultural insurance.