How to promote entrepreneurship among migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas

As "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" advances in depth, rural entrepreneurship and innovation have shown encouraging progress. In particular, entrepreneurship by migrant workers, college students, demobilized military personnel, and scientific and technical personnel returning to or going to rural areas has become a new trend. The fields of entrepreneurship are becoming ever broader, and the starting point of entrepreneurship is becoming ever higher, playing an important role in invigorating the rural economy, creating jobs through entrepreneurship, and increasing farmers' incomes. At the same time, there are still special difficulties and problems, such as insufficient attention, policies not being in place, a lack of support on the entrepreneurial path, relatively high entrepreneurial risks, and lack of understanding from family and society. For this reason, it is necessary to have a correct understanding and guidance regarding entrepreneurship among migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas, and to do the work in a targeted way.

How should we view entrepreneurship among migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas?

For a long period in the past, the rural labor force mainly moved from rural areas to towns and cities. This was the general trend of industrialization and urbanization. Migrant workers have become an important part of the modern industrial workforce and have made tremendous contributions to accelerating the process of industrialization and urbanization and changing the urban-rural dual structure. Now, however, there has emerged an upsurge of entrepreneurship among migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas, and the number of people is increasing rapidly. By the end of 2015, the cumulative number of migrant workers returning home to start businesses had exceeded 4.5 million, accounting for about 2% of the total number of migrant workers; the number of college graduates returning home to start businesses was about 700,000, a proportion of 1%. We should clearly affirm, encourage, and support this phenomenon.

First, entrepreneurship among migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas is a vital force for advancing mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Since the state put forward "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" two years ago, it has become a national policy. At present, policies encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship and innovation are still being continuously strengthened, the government's reform to streamline administration, delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services continues to intensify, and the public opinion, cultural, and social atmosphere is gradually improving. The vitality of the market and the creativity of society have been unleashed, and economic vitality has been effectively stimulated. In 2015, 4.439 million new enterprises were registered, an increase of 21.6% over the previous year, with registered capital of 29 trillion yuan, an increase of 52.2%. Both figures hit record highs. Since the beginning of this year, newly registered enterprises have continued to remain at a high level, with an average of 14,000 new enterprises registered per day in the first half of the year. Just as in the context of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation," the imagination, creativity, and entrepreneurial enthusiasm of grassroots groups like migrant workers have been stimulated. They actively respond to the call of the state, voluntarily join the upsurge of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation," carry with them deep affection for their hometowns, and use the markets, capital, and experience accumulated over many years of struggling in cities, as well as their outstanding advantages such as being hardworking, down-to-earth, resilient and persistent, and quick-witted, to return home and start businesses and open up new horizons. Their success rate is relatively high, and they develop the economy, increase incomes, and become a new driving force for promoting the sustainable development of the agricultural and rural economy.

Second, entrepreneurship among migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas is an inevitable choice for implementing a proactive employment policy. At present, the employment task is very heavy. On the supply side, the pressure of total employment is great, and the contradiction of total quantity still exists; on the demand side, affected by multiple factors such as the shift in economic growth, industrial restructuring, technological progress, and changes in modes of production, the trend of reducing labor, reducing positions, and reducing hiring is obvious, and labor demand is decreasing. As the surplus agricultural labor force gradually transfers, the marginal output and income level of agricultural labor are also gradually increasing. The supply of rural labor has moved from the stage of unlimited supply to the stage of limited supply. In addition, changes in the employment attitudes of the new generation of migrant workers have also brought new changes to the employment of migrant workers. Faced with such an employment situation, some migrant workers and other people voluntarily return to or go to rural areas to start businesses, becoming an important channel for absorbing employment and, through entrepreneurship, driving the development of jobs and the creation of more value. At present, the number of migrant workers returning home to start businesses has reached 4.5 million, and the number of jobs they have driven has reached more than 20 million.

Third, entrepreneurship among migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas is a new driving force for promoting supply-side structural reform in agriculture and promoting the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas. At present, this huge group of farmers has weak income growth. In particular, grain prices and income from working away from home cannot rise, leading to insufficient consumption. Although agriculture has had bumper harvests for many consecutive years, it cannot well meet the market's demand for rich, diverse, high-quality, and safe agricultural products. The problems of an imbalanced variety structure and insufficient quality have become prominent, leading to a large increase in imports. There are also the problems in rural areas of "hollow villages and the three left-behind groups." Therefore, agriculture and rural areas still face the questions of who will farm the land, who will lead farmers to increase incomes and become prosperous, and who will build a beautiful rural homeland, and they face the danger of decline and decay. Therefore, it is necessary both to continue transferring surplus rural labor outward, reducing the number of farmers and increasing the number of urban residents, and realizing large-scale agricultural operation and reasonable agricultural returns; and at the same time to absorb various excellent resources from outside to add new driving forces for promoting agricultural and rural development and driving farmers' employment and income growth. Entrepreneurship by migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas is conducive to introducing modern science and technology, modes of production, and business concepts into agriculture, promoting supply-side structural reform in agriculture, and improving agricultural quality, efficiency, and competitiveness; it is conducive to strengthening new types of agricultural business entities, building a modern agricultural industrial system, production system, and operating system, and promoting the development of modern agriculture; and it is conducive to promoting the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas, enabling farmers to share in the value-added returns of the secondary and tertiary industries, and promoting farmers' employment and income growth.

How should the work of entrepreneurship among migrant workers and other people returning to or going to rural areas be carried out?

First, the focus of the work must be clarified. It is necessary to focus on serving agriculture, promoting supply-side structural reform in agriculture, and improving agricultural quality and efficiency; to focus on serving employment, realizing a virtuous interaction between agricultural and rural economic development and expanded employment, giving play to the multiplier effect of entrepreneurship and innovation in promoting employment, and using entrepreneurship to drive employment; and to focus on serving income growth, promoting better integration of entrepreneurship and innovation with the development of new industries, new forms of business, and new models, promoting the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas, and driving farmers' income growth.

Second, the points of effort of the work must be clarified. First, rely on development; it is necessary to promote economic development, as the overall level of economic prosperity determines the level of activity of entrepreneurship and innovation. Second, rely on the market; it is necessary to improve market systems and mechanisms and truly let the market play a decisive role in allocating resources. Third, rely on development; develop human resources, improve the abilities and qualities of entrepreneurs and innovators, develop agricultural and rural resources, and improve market recognition and project matching. Fourth, rely on policy incentives and assistance; use the visible hand of the government to play a boosting role and facilitate entrepreneurship and innovation by people returning to or going to rural areas.

Third, four tasks must be focused on. First, create and implement policies. It is necessary to formulate policy documents, strengthen policy support, and, by grasping policy creation and implementation, leverage other work. It is necessary to take the series of policy documents supporting entrepreneurship by migrant workers returning to or going to rural areas as the general outline and basis for implementation, strengthen policy publicity, promote policy implementation, and, through supervision, strengthened project guidance, and various other measures, enable policies to take root, blossom, and bear fruit. Second, strengthen statistics and monitoring. It is necessary to promptly understand and grasp the situation of entrepreneurship by people returning to or going to rural areas, strengthen statistical analysis, and provide a basis for higher-level decision-making and the formulation of relevant policies. It is necessary to promptly establish a statistical indicator system and work system, establish a mechanism for sharing information and data, smooth the information and data reporting system, and strengthen the monitoring and analysis of statistical data. Third, do a good job in entrepreneurial services. Establish a number of parks for entrepreneurship and innovation by returning farmers, build the China Farmers' Entrepreneurship and Innovation Network well, and set up online and offline service platforms for entrepreneurship and innovation. Carry out entrepreneurship-related training, organize entrepreneurship matchmaking for people returning to or going to rural areas, and carry out various tasks for people returning to or going to rural areas, such as employment and entrepreneurship policy explanation, information consultation, bank-enterprise matchmaking, skills training, and agricultural technology extension. Set up a number of advanced models, summarize a number of advanced models, and give play to the guiding role of models. Carry out various competitions and forum activities to create a good atmosphere for entrepreneurship. Fourth, strengthen self-development. Attach great importance to building the team system, become familiar with relevant policies, grasp relevant situations, increase work methods, improve work levels, take the initiative, and be proactive, and build a contingent of cadres with high overall quality, rich work experience, and the courage to pioneer and innovate. Give full play to the leading role of agricultural departments and provide strong organizational leadership guarantees for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation by people returning to or going to rural areas.