Equal Exchange of Urban and Rural Factors Boosts Integrated Urban-Rural Development

Since the 18th National Congress, in Comrade Xi Jinping's important expositions on the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, he has repeatedly stressed the need to promote integrated urban-rural development, to promote the equal exchange of urban and rural factors, and to achieve balanced allocation of public resources between urban and rural areas. In the process of implementing the spirit of Comrade Xi Jinping's important expositions, governments at all levels, especially agricultural departments at all levels, have done a great deal of highly effective work, solidly carrying out the work on agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new stage, going all out to advance agricultural modernization, continuously increasing farmers' incomes, and comprehensively deepening rural reform, providing foundational support for the overall economic and social development. This is the mainstream. However, we must recognize that in many places, to varying degrees, there still exist problems of unequal exchange of urban and rural factors and unbalanced allocation of public resources, sometimes even on a systemic scale, which has compounded the complexity of the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers and should be given serious attention.

Promoting equal exchange of urban and rural factors and balanced allocation of public resources to safeguard farmers' interests

Agriculture is a weak industry, and this is especially true in our country, where it is more typically social, public and foundational in nature. At present, agricultural modernization and new rural construction lag behind the overall modernization drive as a whole. This requires that our work must lean toward agriculture, rural areas and farmers, further improve and perfect the agricultural support and protection system, establish a mechanism for stable growth of agricultural input, improve agricultural subsidy methods, raise the level of market regulation, promote innovation in rural finance and insurance, and greatly enhance the "blood-making" function of the entire work on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, so that the sustainable development of this work has strong staying power. However, the unequal exchange of urban and rural factors that exists in reality hinders the process of urban-rural integration and weakens the staying power of agricultural and rural development, and practical measures need to be taken to speed up its resolution.

We can cite examples of this at random. Under the current system, farmers' rights and interests in production factors cannot be effectively safeguarded. Take the labor factor: migrant workers who go to cities for work cannot achieve equal pay for equal work with urban workers. Take the land factor: in rural land development, farmers receive relatively little compensation, and there are also problems of it being withheld. Take the capital factor: the deposits absorbed by rural financial institutions flow in large amounts to non-agricultural, non-rural and non-farmer sectors, especially to cities, while farmers, especially small and micro enterprises in rural areas, face long-term difficulties in obtaining loans. Take the talent factor: a large number of rural elites flow to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other large and medium-sized cities, causing a severe drain of rural talent and a lack of successors. Not to mention that many economic factors and products are input into cities while pollution is left in rural areas, preserving cities at the cost of weakening and sacrificing agriculture, rural areas and farmers, intensifying the urban-rural binary opposition and making the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers even harder to solve, and so on.

To fundamentally change the problem of unequal exchange of urban and rural factors, the most important thing is that governments at all levels, especially leaders with decision-making power, should recognize the seriousness of this problem from the perspective of the overall modernization drive, consciously promote the balanced allocation of public resources, rise above departmental and industry interests, do more good deeds and practical things for the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, take safeguarding farmers' interests as their bounden duty and their own responsibility, and take real action.

First, grasp the core issue of equal exchange of urban and rural factors and balanced allocation of public resources, consciously safeguard farmers' rights and interests in production factors, and effectively guarantee that farmers obtain equal rights and interests in the exchange of factors such as labor, land and capital. In particular, it is necessary to break the shackles of the current labor wage system, reform the urban-rural unequal employment and labor remuneration system, so that migrant workers enjoy the same labor remuneration rights and interests as urban workers; guarantee that farmers enjoy the returns from land appreciation in accordance with the law; allow collective operating construction land to be transferred, leased and used as shares, achieving entry into the market on equal terms and equal rights and equal prices with state-owned land, reform the land expropriation system, and raise farmers' share in the distribution of land value-added returns; and ensure that rural deposits in financial institutions are mainly used for agricultural and rural development.

Second, grasp the key issue of equal exchange of urban and rural factors and balanced allocation of public resources, establish and improve the agricultural support and protection system, reform and improve the agricultural subsidy system, and form a complete set of interest compensation mechanisms for major grain-producing areas. Establishing and improving the agricultural support and protection system, reforming the agricultural subsidy system, and perfecting the interest compensation mechanism for major grain-producing areas are extremely important. It is necessary to improve policy mechanisms and increase support and protection in areas such as capital input, price support and infrastructure construction, forming a long-term mechanism.

Third, encourage and support more social forces to turn to agriculture, and more social capital to be invested in rural construction. With more social forces and social capital turning to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, the situation of rural savings funds flowing outward can be reversed, and it will also help ensure that production factors such as labor and land are taken from agriculture, rural areas and farmers and used for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, offsetting the negative impact on agriculture, rural areas and farmers of the urban-rural imbalance in public resource allocation, and jointly supporting the improvement of rural production and living conditions and the comprehensive development of rural areas.

Fourth, always clearly define the important goal of equal exchange of urban and rural factors, and vigorously promote the equalization of basic public services between urban and rural areas. From basic policies to specific plans, it is necessary to change the urban-rural dual system and effectively promote infrastructure construction leaning toward rural areas. In particular, increase the coverage of rural infrastructure construction by public finance, coordinate the balanced allocation of urban and rural compulsory education resources, improve the three-tier rural medical and health service system, implement key rural cultural benefit projects, improve the new rural social pension insurance policy system, and perfect a public employment and entrepreneurship service system equal between urban and rural areas, so that urban-rural differences shrink year by year, farmers' happiness index rises, and the vast rural areas become suitable for both production and living, moving step by step closer to the goal of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Deepen reform to accelerate urban-rural integration

To change the current situation of unequal exchange of urban and rural factors, at present the most important thing is to break through institutional bottlenecks. After resolving issues of concepts and understanding, we must lose no time in deepening reform, supporting policies and improving mechanisms.

First, improve the rural land system and remove institutional obstacles to the fair exchange of urban and rural land factors. According to existing laws, local governments have the power to expropriate land, and the government occupies a core position in the land expropriation process. The monopoly of the demand side of land has led to a scissors gap between the primary and secondary land markets, led to imperfect development of the land market, and hindered the fair exchange of land factors. Improving the construction of the rural land market means accelerating land rights confirmation, accelerating reform of the land expropriation system, and raising farmers' share in the distribution of land value-added returns.

Second, advance the system of integrated urban-rural development, achieve equalization of urban and rural public services, and enable the broad masses of farmers to participate equally in the modernization process and share in its fruits. This requires cultivating and advancing mechanisms and systems of urban-rural integration at multiple levels. In particular, it is necessary to ensure that rural deposits in financial institutions are used preferentially for agriculture and rural areas. Fiscal expenditure should further lean toward rural areas; the sunshine of public finance should further shine on rural areas, public infrastructure should further extend to rural areas, and public services should further cover rural areas.

Third, pay more attention than ever before to improving the systems and mechanisms for rural ecological and environmental protection. The unequal exchange of urban and rural factors has also directly led to the deterioration of the rural ecological environment, especially land pollution, water pollution and large-scale smog. Ecological land has shrunk sharply, ecological space has narrowed year by year, and the contradiction between man and nature has become more prominent, directly threatening the broad masses of farmers' production and living conditions, especially their health. To solve this problem, it is necessary to solve the problem of favoring cities over rural areas, better give play to the government's leading role, and improve the rural ecological protection management system.

Fourth, use a complete set of policy mechanisms and working mechanisms to strengthen the Party's leadership over the work on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, incorporate specific work such as urban-rural integration into the overall work on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and ensure practical results with correct measures and sufficient work intensity. Party committees and governments at all levels should lean toward agriculture and rural areas in work deployment, financial arrangements and cadre assignment, take resolving the equal exchange of urban and rural factors as a breakthrough, advance the work on agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new stage, comprehensively deepen rural reform, and more outstandingly achieve the strategic goal of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.