Land reform requires both bold exploration and adherence to bottom lines
On December 1, a research symposium on the reform of the rural collective property rights system, hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council, was held in Beijing. Participants at the meeting proposed that in advancing the reform of the rural collective property rights system, especially the reform of the rural land system, it is necessary to emancipate the mind and explore boldly, while also adhering to the bottom lines of collective ownership, protecting farmers' interests, and having a legal basis.
The "Decisions" of the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee of the Party made arrangements for deepening the reform of the rural collective property rights system and innovating the property rights protection system that adapts to effective forms of collective economic realization, and put forward a number of specific reform tasks. The purpose of holding this research symposium was to conduct in-depth discussions on the deep-seated issues involved in the reform of the rural collective property rights system at the theoretical, legal, and policy levels, and to provide theoretical support for the top-level design of the reform of the rural collective property rights system and the construction of the rule of law.
Participants in the discussion believed that rural collective ownership is an important component of the public ownership economy and an important institutional foundation of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Since the reform and opening up, many breakthroughs have been made in the reform of the rural collective property rights system. By the end of 2013, 28,000 villages and 50,000 groups across the country had completed the reform of the rural collective property rights system. However, on the whole, it still faces problems and challenges such as unclear ownership of property rights, lax protection, and insufficient development vitality.
Participants and experts pointed out that the land system is the core issue in the reform of the rural collective property rights system, and it is necessary to focus on solving the problems of use, transfer, and income distribution of contracted land, collective operational construction land, and homestead land. Only by deepening reform and finding more effective ways to realize reform can rural collective ownership stand firm and go far, and advancing the reform of the rural collective property rights system requires more theoretical and practical innovation.
Responsible comrades from relevant central departments, responsible comrades from development research centers, agriculture departments, and rural work offices of various provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, representatives from typical areas of rural collective property rights system reform, and experts and scholars in the fields of economics and law attended this meeting.