Broad prospects for the agricultural economy, with new opportunities emerging for industry development

Currently, many people are setting their sights on emerging industries in the search for new economic growth points. Wu Qing, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, however, has his own view: "If more institutional and structural obstacles to agricultural development can be removed, China's agricultural economic growth will still have broad prospects."

Wu Qing expressed this view at a recent seminar themed "China's Industrial Development and Economic Policy." He said that to tap the potential of the agricultural economy, deeper rural reform must be carried out in tandem. For example, on the basis of confirming rural land rights, active efforts should be made to explore ways for farmers to obtain income from land transfers; the long-standing backlog in rural infrastructure construction should be made up; and various types of capital should be encouraged to go to the countryside.

Wu Qing particularly emphasized the role of capital going to the countryside. He believes that only by allowing various factors, especially capital, to flow freely into rural areas can rural areas create more wealth and can farmers "become prosperous without leaving their native land."

To this end, Wu Qing believes that the market should play a decisive role in resource allocation, that various unreasonable restrictions on capital going to the countryside that run counter to the direction of market reform should be dismantled, and that capital should truly be allowed to flow between urban and rural areas. At the same time, institutional safeguards should be put in place to ensure that factors such as capital, talent, and technology receive the dividends they deserve in agricultural economic development.