How can small town development achieve the shift from quantity to quality?
China Economic Times News: Since the reform and opening up, with the rapid growth of the national economy and the continuous deepening of rural reform, China's small towns have developed rapidly and achieved results that have attracted worldwide attention. By the end of 2008, China had 34,301 small towns, among which designated towns increased from 2,173 in 1978 to 19,234 now; the built-up area population of small towns was 172 million, accounting for 18.2% of the total population of villages and towns. Small towns are playing an increasingly important role in promoting industrial structure adjustment, increasing farmers' income and absorbing surplus rural labor.
But on the whole, China's small towns are numerous in number and small in scale, and their development over the past 30 years has mainly manifested as quantitative expansion. Compared with the “urban disease” brought by improper planning and blind expansion in cities, some problems existing in small towns, such as generally small scale, serious environmental pollution, “thousands of towns with the same face”, and inadequate supporting infrastructure and public facilities, appear even more prominent.
Advancing urbanization is a major strategic task for China as it enters the 21st century, and the upcoming “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period is a key period for China's urbanization development and the comprehensive building of a moderately prosperous society. How to give play to the important role of small towns in urbanization and the coordinated development of urban and rural areas, truly implement the grand strategy of small towns, and promote the healthy and orderly development of China's urbanization during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period all urgently require attention to the main problems existing in the current construction and development of small towns, and vigorous promotion of the transformation of small town development mode from quantity to quality.
1. Develop the small town economy and strengthen the scale of key towns
The generally small scale and weak ability to radiate and drive the surrounding rural areas are currently the most important problems in China's small town development. To fundamentally change the current situation of the generally small scale of small towns, during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, the urgent task is still to develop the small town economy, actively cultivate leading industries with distinctive characteristics, accelerate industrial agglomeration, and strengthen the economic scale. For small towns with a relatively good industrial foundation, industrial park planning should be effectively carried out, industrial park construction should be well handled, leading industries should be highlighted, urban industry and service industries should be vigorously developed, and more labor-intensive enterprises with great development potential and low pollution should be introduced. For agriculture-led small towns, the scientific and technological content of agricultural development should be improved, and modern agriculture with broad inclusiveness and long industrial chains should be actively developed.
Second, actively implement the key town cultivation project. Small town development cannot be carried out in a rush, but should highlight key points. By comprehensively considering factors such as the locational advantages and industrial foundation of small towns, select some central towns with superior conditions, great development potential and a good development foundation for key cultivation, and develop them into regional economic centers and platforms for basic public services in urban and rural areas. For these key towns, in addition to increasing investment, the government should also promptly issue targeted and effective comprehensive encouragement and support policies, aim to establish town governments with clear functions, reasonable structure and high efficiency, and expand the management authority of small towns; adopt tax and fee preferential policies to improve the investment environment of small towns and promote small town economic development; and for the construction land quotas of small towns, land management departments should appropriately tilt toward them and give priority arrangements.
Third, governments at all levels must deepen their understanding of small town development. Blindly abolishing townships and merging towns, or merging towns with towns, may be a “shortcut” to “making small towns bigger and stronger” in a short time, but it is definitely not a bright road leading to a great goal. The abolition of townships and merger of towns must be handled prudently, must comprehensively consider all aspects of small towns, and must respect the wishes of the broad masses of farmers and grassroots cadres, and decisions cannot be made on a whim.
In addition, in small towns with the conditions, pilot work on “two separations and two exchanges” should be carried out as soon as possible to accelerate the construction of new rural communities. In economically relatively developed areas where most of the rural labor force has already transferred to the secondary and tertiary industries, carrying out pilot work on “two separations and two exchanges” is of great significance for improving farmers' living conditions, promoting the concentration of rural population in key towns, promoting economical and intensive use of rural land, and transforming the agricultural development mode.
2. Effectively strengthen small town planning work
Small town planning is not only the main basis for the rational layout of spatial elements such as small town infrastructure, but also the main means of coordinating economic, social and environmental development. In recent years, small town planning work has gradually received attention, and most small towns have prepared master plans. But in terms of quality, quite a number are not high-level and not strongly scientific, prominently reflected in plans being divorced from the reality of small towns, ignoring small town characteristics, and pursuing so-called “modern” styles. In view of this, small town planning work must be strengthened: on the one hand, the concept of plan preparation must be changed, proceeding from the reality of small towns, preparing plans at a high level, and preventing the mistaken tendency of simply copying urban planning methods in small town planning; on the other hand, actively carry out law enforcement inspections of planning and establish the authority of small town planning.
At present, master plans for designated towns have basically become widespread. While further improving the quality of master plans, designated town planning should also develop in two directions. First, develop toward the weak urban system planning and prepare county (city) urban system plans. Second, develop toward detailed planning. The history of key towns' master plans directly guiding small town construction should come to an end. In addition, it is suggested that governments at all levels and competent construction administrative departments, within their respective authorities, establish planning assistance centers facing villages and towns, and through this form integrate planning talent resources that are seriously unevenly distributed across regions. In this way, it can both overcome the waste of resources caused by insufficient production tasks in some planning and design units, and make up for the urgent demand for planning talent in villages and towns, thereby achieving the purpose of serving small town planning.
3. Increase government investment and change the shortage of small town infrastructure and public facilities
As the hardware support system for small town development, infrastructure and public service facilities not only affect the operating efficiency of small towns, but also have an important impact on the economies of scale of small towns. Although after years of construction and development, China's small town infrastructure and public facilities have been significantly improved, the shortage and backwardness of facilities are still bottlenecks restricting small town development. Investigating the reasons, the long-term neglect of investment in small towns by public finance is the most important factor causing the shortage of facilities. In 2008, the total investment in urban municipal public facilities nationwide was 736.8 billion yuan, and the average investment density per unit of urban built-up area was 22.54 million yuan per square kilometer, while for designated towns it was 72.6 billion yuan, with an average investment density of 2.4 million yuan per square kilometer, less than 1/9 of that of cities; for townships it was 9.95 billion yuan, with an average investment density of 1.23 million yuan per square kilometer, only 1/18 of that of cities.
A single funding channel and an unsound investment and financing system are another reason for the shortage of small town infrastructure and public service facilities. In many places, government investment is still the only funding channel for the construction of infrastructure and public service facilities. Small towns lack effective mechanisms to attract social capital and mobilize idle social funds to invest in small town construction.
The unreasonable fiscal distribution system is an institutional defect causing the shortage of small town infrastructure and public service facilities. Most small town governments have no independent fiscal power, and in order to increase fiscal revenue, they tend to obtain construction funds by auctioning land. For small towns in the central and western regions, due to the lack of self-raised funding channels, while the budgetary “subsistence finance” also crowds out construction funds, the shortage of small town construction funds is further aggravated.
During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, governments at all levels must change the traditional concept of valuing cities over towns, take achieving equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas as the primary goal of coordinating urban and rural development, and effectively increase investment in infrastructure and public service facilities in small towns, especially key towns with great potential, a good foundation and prominent locational advantages. It is necessary to reform the current unreasonable fiscal distribution system and, according to the principle of unity of responsibility, power and interests, give small town governments greater fiscal autonomy. It is necessary to establish a diversified investment and financing system and increase financial support for small town infrastructure construction. It is necessary to adhere to the market-oriented direction, and for construction projects in small towns such as water supply and gas that to a certain extent have the conditions for self-financing, according to the principle of “whoever invests, owns and benefits”, encourage social capital investment, and support enterprises and individuals in participating in construction, operation and management. For small towns with obvious locational advantages and great land appreciation potential, land use rights can be bundled with specific infrastructure construction projects to raise construction funds.
4. Carry out small town environmental improvement and improve the human settlement environment of small towns
Historically, it has been common for a city or even a group of towns to perish because of environmental deterioration. Today, with the development of the small town economy and construction, the problem of environmental pollution in small towns is becoming increasingly prominent. It can be said that environmental pollution in small towns can be seen everywhere, and the phenomenon of “modern indoors, dirty and messy outdoors” is very common. In the process of building a new socialist countryside, some villages have undergone great changes in village appearance after improvement. By contrast, some small towns are not as clean and tidy as some villages, forming the unique phenomenon of “both ends hot in urban and village construction, while improvement in small towns is cold in the middle”.
During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, on the basis of drawing on village improvement experience, the government should promptly carry out and increase the intensity of small town improvement work, place small town environmental governance at the height it deserves, and effectively strengthen investment in the weakest link, small town environmental infrastructure. For all small towns that have the conditions to be incorporated into the central urban area sewage pipeline network system, they should fully rely on the urban area and be included in the urban area infrastructure construction plan for solution together. For small towns distributed relatively densely within a certain region, key towns should be taken as the center to actively coordinate the joint construction and sharing of environmental infrastructure. Small town garbage should gradually be centrally treated according to the method of “household collection, village collection, town transport, city (county) treatment”.
5. Innovate the small town management system and improve the level of small town management
At present, the level of small town management is not high, which has a serious negative impact on small town development. The reasons for the low level of small town management mainly include the following aspects: first, the management system is not smooth. For a long time, the management functions of small town governments have been controlled by “vertical lines”, lacking due autonomy and management rights. Second, the management foundation is weak. Small towns generally face problems such as a lack of management personnel, insufficient management funds, a low level of management, and even the absence of some management institutions. Third, multiple departments issue orders. Some policies even conflict with each other, making small town governments even more at a loss. Fourth, relevant laws and regulations are incomplete.
Small town governments bear direct responsibility for organizing and managing small town construction and development. During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, to fundamentally improve the level of small town management, first, it is necessary to follow the principles of the market economy, innovate the small town management system, and let small town governments have autonomy matching their responsibilities. Second, on the basis of relevant provisions of the “Urban and Rural Planning Law”, revise and issue the “Regulations on the Planning and Construction Management of Villages and Market Towns” as soon as possible, and establish a village and town construction management regulatory system based on “one law and one regulation”. Finally, strengthen training for small town government leaders and relevant management personnel. In order to make training work routine and institutionalized, it is suggested that a China Association of Town Mayors be established, drawing on the experience of the China Association of Mayors, and specifically facing small town mayors, providing various forms of systematic training services. In addition, by editing association journals and related materials, provide various information services for small towns, communicate relations among small towns and between small towns and relevant departments, appropriately carry out exchanges and cooperation with foreign small towns and related research institutions, and comprehensively advance the reform and opening up of small towns.
Research Group of the Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development