How do grassroots cadres view urbanization construction?

The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed adhering to a new urbanization path with Chinese characteristics, improving the quality of urbanization, and realizing urbanization with the basic characteristics of "urban-rural coordination, urban-rural integration, industry-city interaction, conservation and intensification, ecological livability, and harmonious development." In practice, the tasks and difficulties faced by large, medium, and small cities will differ. In order to objectively understand and analyze the awareness of grassroots township (subdistrict) Party (Work) Committee secretaries (hereinafter referred to as "township Party committee secretaries") regarding the current new urbanization construction, as well as the difficulties and policy needs they face in urbanization construction, the research group of the Party School of the Lianyungang Municipal Party Committee of Jiangsu Province conducted a questionnaire survey and random interviews with trainees of the "Leadership Capacity Improvement" seminar for township (subdistrict) Party (Work) Committee secretaries of Lianyungang City.

The survey results show that although the restrictive factors currently affecting grassroots urbanization construction vary by place, person, and time, they are prominently manifested in two aspects: the improvement of public service quality and the urgent need to improve urbanization construction.

First, four major factors restrict the improvement of urban public service quality. 39.4% of township Party committee secretaries believed that fiscal revenue was insufficient and could not meet the funding needs of urbanization construction; 31.1% of township Party committee secretaries believed that the urban population was growing too quickly, putting greater pressure on urban infrastructure and service capacity; 22.8% of township Party committee secretaries believed that government functions had not timely shifted toward a service-oriented direction; 34.7% of township Party committee secretaries believed that lagging infrastructure construction was an important factor restricting the improvement of urban public service quality. However, townships and subdistrict offices differed greatly on the factor of "lagging infrastructure construction," with a difference of 20.1 percentage points between the two, highlighting the importance of accelerating infrastructure construction in townships at present.

Second, urbanization construction urgently needs improvement. Among the 11 options in "For the town where you are currently located to create urbanization, which aspects do you think most need improvement," 78.5% of township Party committee secretaries believed that the aspect most needing improvement was "strengthening planning and management of urban and rural space," followed in order by "promoting self-development of towns through the development of secondary and tertiary industries" (67.1%), "improving the social welfare and assistance system, and improving medical conditions" (53.2%), "raising awareness of ecological environmental protection, improving the living environment, and ensuring drinking water, air quality, and food safety" (48.1%), "convenience of shopping, medical care, and schooling" (44.3%), "entrepreneurship, employment training, and assistance" (32.9%), "construction and improvement of social (community) culture" (31.6%), "public transportation" (30.4%), "implementing household registration reform" (17.7%), "strengthening the construction of low-rent housing and affordable housing" (16.5%), and "ensuring town safety" (8.9%).

From the top three aspects most needing improvement, this reflects the importance of scientific and rational planning in current urbanization construction, the supporting role of industrial development, and the safeguarding role of equalized public service system construction. However, there are relatively large differences between urban subdistrict office and township Party committee secretaries regarding the needs of urbanization construction. The difficulties in township urbanization construction are mainly reflected in planning (subdistricts 58.3%, townships 87.3%), infrastructure such as convenience of shopping, medical care, and schooling (subdistricts 33.3%, townships 49.1%), industrial development support (subdistricts 50%, townships 74.5%), and public transportation (subdistricts 20.8%, townships 34.5%). These conclusions indicate that township Party committee secretaries face more difficulties and pressure in urbanization construction than subdistrict Party work committee secretaries.

In view of this, to promote grassroots new urbanization construction in the underdeveloped areas of northern Jiangsu, public policy support in six aspects should be provided.

First, advocate people-oriented and ecology-oriented principles, and abandon assessment methods that focus only on GDP. Urbanization construction is the comprehensive development of the economy, society, life, ecology, environment, and so on. On the one hand, adhere to the concept of comprehensive development, improve the quality of urbanization development, and achieve coordinated and sustainable development rather than mere development speed. On the other hand, adhere to the development concept of "intensive, intelligent, green, and low-carbon," and abandon assessment methods that focus only on GDP. Most township Party committee secretaries believed that cadre assessment methods urgently needed improvement at present, accounting for 77.2%. Therefore, the construction of a comprehensive evaluation system for cadre assessment should be accelerated, placing ecology and people's livelihood first, building ecological security guarantee zones, laying the foundation for building a beautiful town development model of ecological civilization, and realizing the healthy, sustained, and harmonious development of the economy, society, and towns.

Second, improve urbanization financing channels and mechanisms, and provide fiscal preference and funding support. The increase in urban population will inevitably lead to a substantial increase in the demand for funds for urban social security and municipal public facilities expenditures. The shortage of funds has become the largest restrictive factor in grassroots urbanization construction (96.2%), and it is also the most important policy need of township Party committee secretaries. The survey shows that 82.3% of township Party committee secretaries needed fiscal preference and funding support in urbanization construction. By region, subdistrict Party work committee secretaries accounted for 75% of this need, while township Party committee secretaries needing fiscal preference and funding support accounted for 85.5%. To this end, it is necessary to further improve fiscal transfer payments and fiscal preference orientation, provide a stable source of funds for urbanization construction, gradually break the "land finance" model, and curb demolition-related and land expropriation-related mass incidents at the source. Support innovation in urbanization financing mechanisms, gradually establish and improve a new mechanism in which government public investment drives private investment, establish methods combining enterprise investment with government investment and combining market operation with government supervision, and effectively solve the funding difficulties of urbanization construction.

Third, incorporate grassroots urbanization construction into the unified planning of cities and counties, and provide land policies that meet the needs of urbanization construction. The function of the government in urbanization development is to formulate forward-looking urbanization development plans. An important part of planning is to establish a balanced mechanism in which the expansion of urban area is proportional to the increase in residents. The survey shows that 74.7% of township Party committee secretaries urgently needed support for "planning and land policies that meet the needs of urbanization construction," especially township Party committee secretaries, whose demand was stronger. To this end, urban development plans should be scientifically formulated and implemented to improve the scientific nature of the overall layout of towns. First, all overall town plans should be incorporated into the unified municipal plan, and the costs of plan implementation schemes should be supported by municipal (county) finance. At the same time, attention should be paid to the scientific connection between land use planning and township planning. Second, conserve and intensively use land resources, improve the land transfer mechanism, and through a fundamental adjustment of land use methods, maximize the productivity of land factors. Third, provide relatively independent township policy support, so that land and planning procedures can be delegated to township people's governments or land offices and planning and construction stations, effectively resolving the abuse of highly centralized power not matching grassroots rights and responsibilities. Fourth, improve guidance and compensation methods for demolition and construction in farmers' concentrated residential areas; authorize townships to enforce laws against illegal construction or increase support at the county level for township law enforcement, as well as judicial guarantee support in the demolition process.

Fourth, support industrial development policies. Industrial development is an important support for urban development and prosperity. The survey shows that 74.5% of township Party committee secretaries needed support for "urban industrial development policies." The key points and approaches of industrial policy support are: first, combine the resource endowments, industrial foundations, and comparative advantages of towns in various places to promote the clustering of characteristic town industries and establish leading industries; further improve township industrial planning, with emphasis on developing service industry parks, industrial parks, and modern agricultural parks; towns should, based on the principle of cluster development, segment markets and highlight characteristics, forming distinctive and competitive industrial clusters in large-scale agricultural products and specialized and finely segmented industrial products, achieving characteristic and large-scale development. In particular, vigorously develop township industries such as agricultural product processing, resource development, and traditional handicrafts, and accelerate the development of tertiary industries such as commerce, catering, services, and tourism. Second, encourage the expansion and development of modern agriculture, and provide support in planning, taxation, and funding for modern agricultural industrial parks. Third, encourage "new citizens" to start businesses, provide funding and tax preference support for "new citizens" entrepreneurship, and improve free job introduction and free entrepreneurship training for "new citizens."

Fifth, attach importance to urban infrastructure construction, improve comprehensive urban carrying capacity and the construction of an urban safety early warning system. The completeness of infrastructure is an important manifestation of the difference between urban and rural areas. The survey shows that most township Party committee secretaries believed that urban infrastructure needed higher-level supporting facilities. Infrastructure construction should be effectively strengthened, with increasing investment as the core to enhance the carrying capacity of small towns. Improve disaster prevention and mitigation capacity as well as infrastructure levels such as transportation, communications, power supply, heating, gas supply, water supply and drainage, and sewage and garbage treatment, establish an urban safety early warning system for rainstorms and floods, typhoons, earthquakes, and so on, and comprehensively improve urban production and living functions.

Sixth, accelerate reform of the grassroots household registration system and orderly promote the citizenization of the agricultural transfer population. Due to the obstruction of the household registration system, migrant workers who enter urban life cannot enjoy the same social resources as urban residents in social security, education, housing, and so on, creating institutional inequality. However, the survey shows that only 17.7% of township Party committee secretaries believed that household registration policy should be reformed as soon as possible, and they did not deeply recognize the constraints of household registration system reform on urbanization construction. To orderly promote the citizenization of the agricultural transfer population, the key lies in putting in place relevant reforms focused on the citizenization of migrant workers. Efforts should be made to achieve coverage of urban permanent residents by compulsory education, employment services, basic medical care, affordable housing, and so on. To this end, grassroots education and training should be strengthened to improve human capital, a vocational training system for migrant workers should be established and improved, the human capital accumulation effect of urbanization should be fully utilized, and the endogenous constraints on the citizenization of migrant workers should be resolved; establish and improve the vocational training system, strengthen tripartite cooperation among the government, training institutions, and enterprises, and form a cooperative relationship with active participation of "government, education, and industry"; establish a vocational qualification certificate system to effectively improve migrant workers' vocational skill levels and employment competitiveness. Through the government "igniting the fire" and the market "adding firewood," realize the promotion of urbanization construction fundamentally based on "human urbanization."