Plans to cut size of rural workforce take shape
Thursday, November 28, 2002
china.scmp.com
VIVIEN PIK-KWAN CHAN
The mainland is considering policies that will help tens of millions of surplus workers move from villages to towns and cities.
Experts at the State Council Development Research Centre are studying ways to boost the pace of urbanisation in an attempt to reduce the rural population of 800 million and alleviate rural poverty.
Liu Yong, who works at the centre, said consensus was reached at the recent 16th party congress that there should be a massive "de-peasantisation".
Officials plan to develop the service, information technology and financial sectors of large cities while developing industries in medium and small cities to absorb the migrating labourers.
Vice-Agricultural Minister Han Changfu said yesterday the industry and service sectors accounted for more than 85 per cent of the economy, providing good conditions for moving rural workers.
Mr Liu said several policies were being seriously considered in order to "inject life" into cities and speed up urbanisation.
He said the hukou, or residence registration, system should be reformed to make it easier for people to move to cities.
"The classification of city and rural hukous should be abolished to remove barriers [so] migrant workers from villages will be able to stay in cities, giving them incentives to consume in cities instead of sending all their earnings back to rural villages."
Mr Liu said social welfare plans, which were now administered by individual provincial authorities, should be co-ordinated by central authorities so that rural labourers who move to cities could keep receiving benefits.
Flexibility in farmland disposal rights should also be considered.
"Many provincial leaders, especially heads from Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, have said that farmland would inevitably be taken over in the process of developing cities, but the central authorities' farmland system has been over-restrictive, requiring provincial governments to apply for permits for any projects involving over 133.3 hectares of farmland disposal," said Mr Liu.
He said China's strategy of urbanisation would be different to that of Western nations.
"China will emphasise the development of large, medium and small cities as well as townships at the same time, while Western countries emphasise more on the development of large cities."
He said though focusing on developing large cities would cut waste, it required huge amounts of capital, which China lacked.
According to the United Nations, countries should invest at least 6 per cent of their GDP to develop city infrastructure, but this year China has invested only 4 per cent, or about 300 billion yuan (HK$282 billion). |
