Modernization and Ways for Farmers to Gain Urban Residency

Ye Xingqing, Research Department of Rural Economy, DRC

Under the instruction of the central government's policy and the guidance of scientific, democratic, and law-based policy making, various local governments and relevant departments have made consistent efforts to improve policy making mechanisms and procedures, enhance accountability systems, and push ahead with scientific and democratic policy making.

The papers collected here in the series of books are research findings by policy research and consultation departments under the State Council, as well as by policy research departments of Party committees, governments, and enterprise and public institutions nationwide. Many of these findings are given due attention and positive comments by central leaders as well as by responsible members from pertinent provinces and ministries. These papers have contributed significantly to the making and implementation of relevant policies and provided important references for scientific, democratic and law-based policy making of CPC central committee and the central government.

These findings for policy making reference have three characteristics: 1. Taking investigation and research as a basic method and necessary procedure for policy making, which fully demonstrates that the Party upholds Marxism's scientific spirit of seeking truth from facts and keeping up with the times; 2. Taking investigation and research as an important leverage for taking initiatives and promoting innovation, and concentrating efforts on carrying out in-depth research on key, hard and hot issues relating to socio-economic development, as well as putting forward goals and measures for addressing relevant issues to creatively push ahead with work; 3. Taking investigation and research as the basic way of maintaining close ties with the masses and adhering to the working principle of seeking advice from the people about government administration and getting to know their needs so that the proposed policy options can be accepted and supported by the masses eventually.

This book is a collection of findings entitled "Modernization and Ways for Famers to Gain Urban Residency". Part 1: "Farmers becoming urban residents is the only way leading to modernization". It has 10 papers such as "Take active and steady steps to advance urbanization", "Suggestions on including the construction of small towns as a target of new national debt funding", and "Further remove institutional and policy obstacles to the development of small towns". Part 2: "How do farmers withdraw from rural areas?" It has 6 papers such as "Another impediment to urbanization: Rural collective property rights system checks population migration", "Approaches and suggestions on constantly releasing agricultural labor force", and "‘Two waivers' (i.e. waive land contract right and waive homestead use right) should not be treated as a precondition for farmers to become urban residents". Part 3: "How do farmers gain urban residency?" It has 7 papers such as "Tackling the problem of arbitrary charges imposed on migrant workers has made positive progress while consolidating achievements still needs to solve deep-seated problems", "Create a favorable environment for transferring rural labor force and for farmers working in cities", and "Farmers gaining urban residency with property: The essence of Jiangdong District's 'three reforms plus the process of rural urbanization' and relevant issues" (i.e. reform in transforming administrative village system into urban-style community management, reform in setting up joint stock cooperative system, and reform in constructing old villages, as well as the process of urbanizing rural areas). Part 4: "How to urbanize land?" It includes the following papers such as "Opinions and suggestions on regulating urban and rural construction land" and "Additional suggestions on reform of land compensation system" as well as three papers from the series of "Special researches on reform of land compensation system". Part 5: "What about agriculture if farmers enter cities". It has 10 papers such as "In what aspects does China's agricultural modernization lag behind?", "Major options for the promotion of modern agriculture construction during the middle-to-later period of industrialization", and "Prospects for food security in the middle-income stage and relevant countermeasures".