What are the difficulties and priorities in advancing new urbanization
Recently, at the "2015 China High-Level International Forum on Urbanization" co-hosted by the China Center for Urban Development, the World Economic Forum and the World Bank, the issue of granting urban residency status to rural migrant workers once again became the focus of attention from all sides. Wang Yiming, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission, Li Tie, Director of the China Center for Urban Development, and Yue Xiuhu, Deputy Director of the Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, held in-depth discussions on this issue.
They believe that granting urban residency status to rural migrant workers remains the key difficulty in advancing new urbanization. Institutional obstacles still exist that hinder the natural progress of urbanization, the most central of which are the household registration system that divides urban and rural areas and the urban-rural dual welfare structure attached to household registration. If these obstacles cannot be broken down, the free flow of labor as a factor of production and equal access to social welfare cannot be achieved.
How can the household registration problem of migrant workers be solved?
Li Tie pointed out that at present China's permanent resident population urbanization rate is 53.7%, while the household registration population urbanization rate is only about 36%, not only far below the average level of 80% in developed countries, but also below the average level of 60% in developing countries with per capita income similar to China's, leaving considerable room for development.
Wang Yiming pointed out: "China currently has 269 million rural migrant workers who have long resided, lived and worked in various cities and towns. Many of them have stable jobs but cannot enjoy the social public welfare benefits that urban residents with household registration can enjoy, which creates the new problem of a 'dual structure within cities.'"
He believes that "granting urban residency status to rural migrant workers involves different circumstances in different places, and the methods and steps should be adapted to local conditions. Because household registration system reform cannot be accomplished overnight, it needs to be implemented in batches and advanced in an orderly manner. In granting urban residency status to rural migrant workers, on the one hand, those who meet the conditions to settle in cities should be able to do so; on the other hand, for those who do not meet the conditions or are unwilling to settle, equalized basic public services should also be provided, especially regarding housing, children's education, elderly care and medical care that affect their own interests, and these should gradually become the same as for urban residents."
How should the cost of new urbanization be shared?
"The process of new urbanization will further intensify the fiscal pressure of social security, and the problem of difficult financing troubles many local governments." Li Tie introduced, "The cost of granting urban residency status to one rural migrant worker is estimated at roughly 80,000 to 130,000 to 140,000 yuan, varying." Previously, the research report "Cost Estimation of Granting Urban Residency Status to Rural Migrant Workers" by the Development Research Center of the State Council also pointed out that in the short term, compulsory education and affordable housing are the main expenditures, while in the long term, pension insurance subsidies are the main expenditures, among which compulsory education and affordable housing expenditures account for about 1/3 of the total cost, and pension insurance subsidies account for about 40%-50% of the total cost.
Li Tie believes that establishing a cost-sharing mechanism for granting urban residency status to rural migrant workers is very important, with the government, enterprises and individuals sharing the burden together. Infrastructure construction has a public welfare nature, with a very large one-time investment, but it can benefit several generations, while the immediate return may be very low. Different financing methods can be adopted according to the different nature of projects to achieve financing. For projects with relatively good and stable short-term returns, social capital can be introduced to participate in investment through the public-private partnership PPP model; for projects with very low returns or no short-term economic returns at all, financing still has to be achieved through government financing.
How should population flow between cities be guided?
As the level of urbanization grows ever higher, more and more people flock to large cities, and the livability of cities declines year by year. "Urban diseases" such as crowded population, difficult employment, tight housing, polarization between rich and poor, and deteriorating public health are becoming increasingly serious. Li Tie believes that the root cause of large cities "getting sick" may not lie in their being "large," but in being "large but inappropriate." According to the latest city size classification standards, those with a population of more than 5 million are megacities, and those with more than 10 million are super megacities. Currently China has 16 megacities, accounting for 2%, among which there are 6 super megacities. Although problems in large cities keep emerging, the appeal of large cities still far exceeds that of small and medium-sized cities.
Li Tie believes that granting urban residency status to rural migrant workers requires not only achieving the transformation of the identity and work of a considerable portion of rural migrant workers in quantity, but also achieving in quality their integration with urban residents in work methods, lifestyles, social interactions and values. To promote the granting of urban residency status to rural migrant workers, it is necessary to consider city layout in a coordinated way, relying on large cities, focusing on small and medium-sized cities, and gradually forming city clusters with strong radiating effects, avoiding the emergence of "large city diseases" and "slums." It is necessary to adjust the regional development layout, and in particular the central and western regions must prepare to receive the gradient transfer of industries from the eastern region, and promote the nearby and local transfer and employment of rural migrant workers.
When talking about how to promote new urbanization, Yue Xiuhu pointed out that the process of urbanization must respect economic laws, natural laws and social laws, and must guide population dispersal through the appropriate dispersal of economic distribution and urban functions, rather than through plans or compulsory measures. To guide the rational flow of population, the fundamental issue of unequal allocation of public resources must still be resolved. To guide population flow to small and medium-sized cities, it is necessary to further optimize the allocation of public resources, narrow the gap in public services between cities of different sizes, and make other small and medium-sized cities sufficiently attractive as well.