To advance new urbanization, the key is to grasp the critical links

Compared with traditional urbanization, new urbanization emphasizes people-centered development and sustainable development. People-centered means that new urbanization should revolve around the core factor of “people” and focus on advancing the urbanization of people; sustainable development requires taking a long-term perspective and coordinating the improvement of the town's economic carrying capacity, social carrying capacity and environmental carrying capacity. To advance new urbanization on these two foundations, the following four issues should be given close attention.

⟦NL> Key mechanisms. Among the basic factors that influence and even determine urbanization, industrial structure transformation is the driving mechanism of urbanization, the flow, agglomeration and integration of economic factors is the realization mechanism of urbanization, relevant institutional arrangements and reforms are the safeguarding mechanism of urbanization, and the supply of resources and the environment is the constraining mechanism of urbanization. Among them, the realization mechanism is the key mechanism. The transfer and flow of economic factors triggered by industrial structure transformation can achieve scale agglomeration and optimal combination, and its result is the tangible development of urbanization.

Key factors. Corresponding to the key mechanisms of new urbanization, “people” and “money” are the two key factors of new urbanization. “People” is the core factor of new urbanization and also the main subject of new urbanization. Issues that currently need attention and study include: first, research on the subjects of urbanization (rural migrant population), including the differentiation of sub-groups, environmental conditions of destination areas, and so on. Second, the practical problems faced by the citizenization of agricultural transfer population, such as the “explicit household registration wall” and the “implicit household registration wall” and the dual “household registration wall shielding”; the “three-link obstruction” of rural exit, urban entry and urban integration; and the “four major capital deficiencies” of financial capital, human capital, social capital and rights capital. Third, the differences and mismatches between the citizenization willingness and citizenization ability of the agricultural transfer population and different sub-groups of the transfer population. “Money” is the bottleneck constraining factor of new urbanization, and also the most critical “hard” capital deficiency faced by the citizenization of the agricultural transfer population. The “money” here refers to the funding cost of the citizenization of the agricultural transfer population in the process of new urbanization, including the individual cost of citizenization at the micro level, and the social cost of citizenization and its apportionment and raising at the macro level.

Key links. The urbanization of the agricultural population generally includes three links: rural exit, urban entry and urban integration. Since the 1990s, the link of urban integration has become the key link constraining the stable and healthy development of new urbanization. The urban integration of potential citizens includes three progressively advancing levels: economic integration, social integration and political integration, and economic integration is the foundational and decisive level. The fundamental reason constraining economic integration is that the agricultural transfer population lacks the ability to bear the cost of citizenization, and it also includes the seriously insufficient ability of the government to provide public goods and social security for potential citizens. “Money” is the key bottleneck factor, and the link with the largest demand for “money” and the largest supply gap at the same time is the link of urban integration. Specifically, the key problems of the key link include: inequality of employment opportunities and remuneration in the labor market, unequal opportunities to enjoy public goods in terms of household registration rights, gaps in the coverage and level of social security, lag in the process of citizenization in terms of lifestyle, obstacles to urban acceptance and integration in terms of social identity, and lack of channels for upward development in terms of development space.

Key reforms. Centering on the four major difficult problems faced in advancing new urbanization, namely “where do people go”, “where does the money come from”, “how should space be laid out”, and “how should towns be built and managed”, it is necessary to strengthen top-level design and research and, with the concept of a market economy, reasonably advance the reform of the household registration and population management system, the reform of the land transfer and requisition system, the reform of the employment system, the reform of the public service system, the reform of the urban investment and financing system, and the reform of the fiscal and tax system. This is because only the above institutional arrangements and institutional dividends based on market mechanisms can break the constraints of key factors such as “people” and “money” in the urbanization process of a large developing country, and thereby promote the coordinated development of new urbanization with new industrialization, informatization, agricultural modernization and greening.