Deepening Farm Reclamation Reform Continues, Creating New Glory for Farm Reclamation Development
From the Great Northern Wilderness that lay dormant for a thousand years to the boundless Gobi wasteland, from the vast rubber seas of the treasure island to the scattered model towns of a new type of urbanization, from the first state-owned mechanized farms to the international grain traders gradually gaining strength…… For more than sixty years, generations of farm reclamation workers have insisted on putting the need to serve the national strategy first, playing an irreplaceable role in major strategic tasks such as building modern agriculture, stabilizing border areas and prospering the economies of ethnic regions, and becoming an important force in safeguarding national food security, the effective supply of important agricultural products and the building of modern agriculture.
The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to farm reclamation work. Especially since last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping and other Party and state leaders have on many occasions made important expositions on the unique role of the farm reclamation system in the new period. This year's No. 1 Central Document, for the first time, incorporated farm reclamation reform into the key tasks of comprehensively deepening rural reform, and clearly proposed to speed up the study and introduction of policies and measures to advance farm reclamation reform and development, and to build farm reclamation into an important agricultural product production base and a demonstration and driving force for modern agriculture. This is the first time in more than 20 years that China has once again made a comprehensive deployment of farm reclamation reform at the national policy level. It not only sounds the assembly call once again for accelerating the development of the farm reclamation cause under the background of marketization and the new normal of the economy, but is also of great significance for comprehensively deepening rural reform in the new period, strengthening the state-owned agricultural economy, and comprehensively enhancing the state's control over and influence on agriculture as a strategic industry.
As the main form of realization of the state-owned agricultural economy, farm reclamation has always been an important representative of advanced agricultural relations of production and productive forces. At present, China has entered a new period of accelerated transformation and upgrading from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, and the internal and external environment for agricultural and rural development has also undergone profound changes, with various deep-seated problems emerging in combination. On the basis of stabilizing household management, how can we resolve the contradiction between small production and the large market, and explore and improve the basic socialist rural management system with Chinese characteristics? In the face of economic globalization and the growing influence of the international market and capital on China's agriculture, how can we ensure the effective supply, price stability and quality safety of agricultural products, and strengthen the state's capacity for macro-control of agriculture? Under the situation of the rapid development of industrialization, urbanization and informatization, how can we change the unfavorable situation in which agricultural modernization clearly lags behind, and promote the accelerated transformation and upgrading of agriculture? This requires us not only to accelerate the reform and development of the vast rural areas, but also to pay greater attention to the reform and development of farm reclamation.
Deepening farm reclamation reform is conducive to strengthening the advantages of farm reclamation in organization, scale and mechanization, and raising the land output rate, labor productivity and commodity supply rate. This is a strategic measure to ensure national food security and accelerate the building of modern agriculture. Deepening farm reclamation reform is conducive to giving play to the leading role of the state-owned economy, demonstrating and driving the development of new types of agricultural business entities, and building the carrier and platform for the state's macro-control of agriculture. This is an effective means of transforming the agricultural development mode and enhancing the state's capacity for macro-control of agriculture. Deepening farm reclamation reform is conducive to China's agriculture integrating resources over a larger scope, in broader fields and at a higher level, raising the concentration of the agricultural industry and the initiative in participating in international competition. This is an important way to cultivate international grain traders in farm reclamation and enhance the international competitiveness of China's agriculture. Deepening farm reclamation reform means actively exploring the specific paths for farm reclamation in realizing the development of the “four synchronizations”, and driving farm reclamation and the surrounding rural labor force to achieve employment and entrepreneurship. This is an objective requirement for adapting to the new normal of the economy and advancing the new type of urbanization and the development of the “four synchronizations”.
At present, profound changes are taking place in world conditions, national conditions, agricultural conditions and farm reclamation conditions. Deepening farm reclamation reform and development is facing enormous historical opportunities, but at the same time it is full of complexity and difficulty. Farm reclamation reform involves not only the reform of the administrative management system and the business management system, but also the reform of state-owned enterprises and the reform of social functions. It is necessary both to handle well the relationship between government and enterprise and between society and enterprise, and to handle well the relationship between the central and local governments and between the reclamation areas and the localities. It covers a wide range and involves complex types, and there are no ready-made paths or models to draw on. In accordance with the deployment and arrangements of the central authorities, we must do a good job in the top-level design for deepening the reform of the farm reclamation system, and in line with the principles of overall coordination, adapting measures to local conditions, proceeding step by step, and being pragmatic and efficient, make breakthroughs link by link and implement measure by measure, steadily advancing farm reclamation reform and development.
To advance farm reclamation reform and development, we must firmly advance the reform of farms toward enterprise operation and group operation. Let social functions and business functions operate according to their respective laws, and build state-owned farms into modern enterprises with a sound system, flexible mechanisms and openness and inclusiveness. We must transform the operating systems and mechanisms, build large vertically integrated modern agricultural enterprise groups, advance the integration and reorganization of enterprises, build a parent-subsidiary management system linked by capital, accelerate the establishment and improvement of a modern enterprise system, and continuously raise management levels and market competitiveness.
To advance farm reclamation reform and development, we must explore and promote reform to diversify equity. We must steadily advance the reform of the property rights system of enterprises affiliated with farm reclamation groups, actively use the capital market to attract various types of investment entities, and introduce strategic investors, including private capital, international capital and listed companies, gradually transforming core enterprises such as industrialized specialized companies and the headquarters of reclamation area groups into joint-stock enterprises with diversified capital structures, advancing the transition from a single form of property rights to diversified property rights, and exploring business methods and organizational forms that can enhance the vitality, control, influence and operating efficiency of the state-owned economy in the agricultural field, so as to effectively enhance the development vitality of state-owned agricultural capital.
To advance farm reclamation reform and development, we must clarify the ownership relations of farm reclamation state-owned assets. We must strengthen supervision over farm reclamation state-owned assets, ensure that state-owned capital is mainly invested in the agricultural industry, seriously pursue responsibility for the loss of state-owned assets, and fulfill the responsibility of preserving and increasing the value of state-owned assets. Group-based reclamation areas with the conditions to do so should explore the approach of farm reclamation state-owned capital investment companies, enhance the operating efficiency and benefits of farm reclamation state-owned assets, and establish a state-owned asset supervision system consistent with the characteristics of farm reclamation.
We must innovate the farm management system and actively cultivate large-scale agricultural business entities. The key is to strengthen the unified management function of state-owned farms, especially the business management function of state-owned farms, and solve the problems that agricultural worker households cannot handle, cannot handle well, or cannot handle cost-effectively on their own. We must actively develop agricultural business forms such as joint-stock and corporate forms. We must improve the contracted management of workers, and improve the mechanism for reasonable benefit-sharing and risk-sharing between state-owned farms and agricultural workers.
The single character “ken” (reclaim) means exploring and innovating, daring to open up, and forging ahead. At present, we must deeply understand and accurately grasp the background, direction and measures of the central authorities in advancing farm reclamation reform and development, and with the reform spirit of keen reform, courageous exploration and vigorous action, advance the process of farm reclamation reform with practice that is more creative, more capable and more driving, open up new glory for the cause of farm reclamation reform, and make new contributions to comprehensively deepening rural reform and building agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics.