How can the integration of urban and rural development be accelerated?
Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out at the collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on April 30 this year: “It is necessary to plan industry and agriculture, cities and the countryside as a whole, and promote the integration and common development of urban and rural areas in planning and layout, factor allocation, industrial development, public services, ecological protection and other aspects.” He also stressed: “We must work diligently and increase investment, and strive to make major breakthroughs in coordinating urban-rural relations, especially in breaking the urban-rural dual structure and promoting equal exchange of urban and rural factors and balanced allocation of public resources, so as to inject new momentum into rural development and enable the broad masses of farmers to participate equally in the process of reform and development and share the fruits of reform and development.” This important speech is lofty in purpose, takes the overall situation into account, is profound in thought and rich in content, and has pointed out the direction and added momentum for promoting the integration of urban and rural development and building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
Promoting the integration of urban and rural development is a strategic idea that must be upheld
Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “Promoting the integration of urban and rural development is an inevitable requirement for industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization after reaching a certain stage, and is an important symbol of national modernization.” This profoundly reveals the essence and inevitable connection between urban and rural development. Promoting the integration of urban and rural development means taking cities and the countryside as an organic whole, promoting equal exchange of urban and rural production factors and balanced allocation of public resources, and advancing the process of coordinated urban-rural development and common development. It is not an expedient measure, but a strategic move.
An inevitable requirement for accelerating the process of new industrialization. New industrialization is the evolution of humanity's mode of production, and it is both a process of adjusting the industrial structure and a process of transforming the development mode. From the perspective of historical development, with the acceleration of industrialization, urban economic strength has continued to improve. At the same time, in developing countries, because population flows to cities and industry concentrates in cities, an urban-rural dual structure has formed, that is, a state in which an advanced modern economy dominated by industry in cities coexists with a backward traditional economy dominated by agriculture in rural areas. This state not only affects industrial development, but also hinders the transformation of the economic development mode. Industry and agriculture are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. Without the development of agriculture, it is difficult for industry to get started; without the drive of industry, it is difficult for agriculture to develop. This requires breaking the urban-rural dual structure and promoting the integration of urban and rural development, so as to open up broad space for new industrialization with industry-agriculture interaction and urban-rural integration.
An unavoidable stage in raising the level of new urbanization. Urbanization, on the one hand, manifests as a process of absorption and agglomeration, that is, in the early stage of urbanization, rural population and production factors accelerate their concentration in cities, resulting in urban-rural separation; on the other hand, it manifests as a process of diffusion and radiation, that is, as the urban economic energy increases and industry upgrades, it requires expanding geographical space, transferring primary industries, and moving toward urban-rural integration. This is a universal law of the urbanization process. It is precisely because of the gradient effect of agglomeration and radiation at different stages of urbanization that functionally complementary “city clusters” and “metropolitan circles” have formed. For a long time, most of China's cities have expanded by administrative division as the unit, in a single-center, ring-layered, “pancake-spreading” manner, which has affected both urban agglomeration and urban quality. To solve this problem, it is urgent to break the urban-rural dual structure and innovate the mode of urban development. The integration of urban and rural development is a new path and a new stage of urbanization, including both population urbanization and urbanization of the economic structure.
The only way to promote rural modernization. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “Agriculture is still the short leg in ‘synchronizing the four modernizations,’ and rural areas are still the weak link in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.” “Accelerating the integration of urban and rural development is a strategic task put forward by the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and is also an inevitable requirement for implementing the ‘Four Comprehensives’ strategic layout. To build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the most arduous and heaviest tasks are in rural areas, especially poverty-stricken rural areas.” Due to historical reasons, China long implemented an urban-rural dual system, and did not incorporate agricultural development, rural construction and farmers' interests with cities into an organic whole, resulting in regional segmentation, resource segmentation and urban-rural segmentation, leading to a poor rural foundation, low investment and slow development. To promote rural modernization, it is necessary to break the urban-rural dual structure, accelerate the extension of urban infrastructure to rural areas, the coverage of public services in rural areas, and the spread of modern civilization to rural areas, build a harmonious and symbiotic urban-rural relationship, and create a favorable situation of common prosperity for urban and rural areas.
Promoting the integration of urban and rural development is an urgent task that must be completed
Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “In recent years, the Party Central Committee has persisted in treating the resolution of the ‘three rural issues’ as the top priority in the work of the whole Party, continuously increased the intensity of policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers and enrich farmers, the foundational position of agriculture has been notably strengthened, rural social undertakings have been notably improved, and major progress has been made in coordinating urban and rural development and adjusting urban-rural relations. At the same time, due to too many arrears and a weak foundation, the contradiction of unbalanced and uncoordinated urban and rural development in China is still relatively prominent, and accelerating the integration of urban and rural development has become more prominent in significance and more urgent in requirements.” Promoting the integration of urban and rural development is an urgent task that we must complete.
The fundamental way out for optimizing factor allocation, promoting interactive urban-rural development and enhancing overall regional strength. Practice has proved that the improvement of regional competitive strength depends on urban-rural interaction and integrated development. An important reason why some areas in the coastal and central regions have strong economic strength and high residents' incomes is the equal exchange of urban and rural factors and the common prosperity of urban and rural economies. But in most places, the foundation of rural economic development is still not solid enough, and the space for urban resource allocation is still not large enough. Practice tells us that ignoring urban-rural links and focusing only on the ‘three rural issues’ for the ‘three rural issues,’ or focusing only on cities for cities, will not work. It affects both the optimal allocation of resources and common urban-rural development, and the result will inevitably be that rural development lacks momentum, urban development lacks a foundation, and regional development lacks staying power. The integration of urban and rural development is not only conducive to expanding development space and the flow of resource factors, but also conducive to improving the driving force of central cities and enhancing the coordination of regional development.
A fundamental measure for safeguarding and improving people's livelihood, narrowing the urban-rural gap and building a harmonious society. The long-standing urban-rural dual structure has led to unequal exchange of factors between urban and rural areas, increased the difficulty of harmonizing urban-rural relations and promoting industry-agriculture interaction, and widened the urban-rural development gap. This is manifested not only in the unbalanced allocation of public resources between urban and rural areas, but also in the fact that some migrant workers who have long participated in urban construction and services live in cities but cannot become urban residents, and serve cities but cannot enjoy urban life, thus lacking a sense of belonging to the city and even lacking trust in society. In particular, the new generation of migrant workers yearns for cities but is not accepted by them, and has roots in rural areas but is increasingly alienated from them. Contradictions between urban and rural areas intensify, affecting social harmony. Only by promoting the integration of urban and rural development can urban-rural contradictions be reduced, the urban-rural gap narrowed, and urban-rural harmony promoted.
The fundamental path for persisting in promoting agriculture through industry, achieving common prosperity for urban and rural areas, and improving quality of life. The progress of human civilization is a process in which cities and rural areas depend on and promote each other. Rural development lays a good foundation for urban prosperity, and urban prosperity provides strong momentum for rural development. Since reform and opening up, although both cities and rural areas have achieved rapid development and both urban and rural appearances have greatly changed, the urban-rural gap has not narrowed notably. In particular, in terms of social investment that directly affects future development, rural areas do not account for a high proportion. An important reason is that long-standing institutional and mechanism obstacles prevent farmers from turning resources into assets and assets into capital, and prevent them from optimizing resource allocation and attracting social investment through market mechanisms, which restricts farmers from developing production and increasing income. Only by deepening agricultural and rural reform, accelerating the integration of urban and rural development, integrating rural resources and increasing agricultural investment can the rural production level and farmers' quality of life be improved and common urban-rural prosperity promoted.
Promoting the integration of urban and rural development is a development opportunity that must be grasped
Comrade Xi Jinping stressed: “At present, China's economic strength and comprehensive national power have notably increased, and we have the material and technical conditions to support the integration of urban and rural development, and have reached the development stage in which industry nurtures agriculture and cities support rural areas.” Under the new normal of economic development, promoting the integration of urban and rural development is both a driving force for growth and an opportunity for development.
Promoting the integration of urban and rural development conforms to the policy orientation of maintaining sustained and healthy economic development. At present, the world economic recovery is weak, external demand is unlikely to improve much, and the domestic economy faces downward pressure. Under such circumstances, it is necessary to further expand domestic demand and give play to the foundational role of consumption and the key role of investment. Where are the priorities of investment and the hot spots of consumption? Increasing rural investment and stimulating rural consumption are undoubtedly inevitable choices for stabilizing growth, adjusting structure and transforming the mode under the new normal of the economy. They will greatly stimulate rural investment potential, open up rural market space, drive industrial upgrading, and thereby promote China's maintenance of medium-to-high-speed economic growth.
Promoting the integration of urban and rural development conforms to the reform orientation of efficient allocation and utilization of resources. Focusing on the larger space of urban-rural integration to efficiently allocate, integrate and utilize resources is both a requirement of development and an orientation of reform. For a long time, the urban-rural dual structure has hindered the equal exchange and optimal allocation of urban and rural resources. This is both a prominent problem facing urban and rural development and a key link that must be broken through in deepening reform. Promoting the integration of urban and rural development has become an important focal point for breaking through the institutional and mechanism obstacles restricting China's development. Reform both provides momentum for the integration of urban and rural development and creates opportunities for it. The current bottlenecks of the urban-rural dual structure, policy constraints and development difficulties will all be gradually resolved with the advancement of reform.
Promoting the integration of urban and rural development conforms to the development trend of economic structural adjustment and upgrading. Under the new normal of economic development, the structure of investment and consumption, the structure of domestic and external demand, the regional structure, the income distribution structure and the structure of economic development momentum all need in-depth adjustment. Promoting the integration of urban and rural development can not only provide greater room for manoeuvre and strong momentum support for structural adjustment in these areas, but can also improve relevant institutional mechanisms. It can be said that promoting the integration of urban and rural development is both the foundational support for economic structural adjustment and upgrading and an important measure leading economic structural adjustment and upgrading, and will powerfully promote China's economic transformation and upgrading.