Urbanization conference to deploy citizenization of migrant workers

　　Amid discussions on the 2014 economic growth target, the National Urbanization Work Conference, following the Central Economic Work Conference, has concluded, and the policy approach for China's new urbanization is about to be set.

　　Yesterday, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Hu Xiaoyi said that the ongoing urbanization work conference will make further deployments on the citizenization of migrant workers.

　　At the same time, since the beginning of this year, the new urbanization repeatedly emphasized by Premier Li Keqiang and the related National New Urbanization Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) have gone through several drafts, and the final version will be completed after the urbanization conference and is expected to be announced before the two sessions next year.

　　Some researchers said that under the constraints of people, finance, and land, especially the latter two, this urbanization construction must rely more on market forces.

　　Urbanization of people

　　The current urbanization model is unsustainable and difficult to continue, which is a consensus among the public and the government. In the past, land-centered urbanization directly led local governments to rely heavily on land finance, and farmers who lost their land were either "forced upstairs" or "forced to urbanize."

　　Thus, regarding the urbanization rate, there are two statistical methods: one based on household registration and the other on permanent residents. For the former, the data released by the Ministry of Public Security is 35%, and for the latter, the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics is 52.57%. The difference lies in the over 200 million migrant workers.

　　Sheng Laiyun, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, said yesterday that the main reason for the inconsistency between the two data calibers is the urban-rural dual structure. To further improve the quality of China's urbanization, it is especially necessary to accelerate the citizenization of migrant workers.

　　In addition, excessive reliance on land finance has made local governments value land that can easily generate revenue while ignoring the issue of citizenization of migrant workers, which requires substantial fiscal expenditure.

　　At the China Urbanization High-Level International Forum earlier this year, Vice Minister of Land and Resources Hu Cunzhi said that based on data from nearly 20 years from 1990 to 2010, in China's urbanization process, land urbanization has been significantly faster than population urbanization, far exceeding the internationally recognized reasonable threshold of 1.12.

　　Previously, Gu Shengzu, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, said at a seminar on new urbanization that it is necessary to break path dependence and make good path choices for new urbanization.

　　Yang Weimin, Deputy Director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, also clearly stated that urbanization has three core issues, namely people, land, and money, all of which currently face institutional and mechanism reform problems.

　　The mainstream view in the industry is that China should take the path of new urbanization in the future, which includes not only the expansion of urban areas but also the citizenization of migrant workers and reform of the household registration system. The key is urbanization supported by industry and employment, and urbanization that unifies quantity and quality.

　　More importantly, the resource allocation model of urbanization should shift from government-led to market-determined. The Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee also clearly stated that the market should play a decisive role in resource allocation.

　　Gu Shengzu said that it is necessary to restrain the government's restless hand and prevent excessive intervention. As for the government's role, it should neither overstep nor be absent. "The government should design institutions, especially providing public services for migrant workers, environmental protection, market supervision, and social management."

　　Relying on market forces

　　According to media reports, the Plan, led by the National Development and Reform Commission and compiled with the participation of multiple ministries, proposes that market-based methods should be used more in urbanization construction, enterprises will become the main body of urban infrastructure construction, and the government will mainly be responsible for management innovation in urban construction.

　　The aforementioned researcher said that under the constraints of people, finance, and land, especially the latter two, this urbanization construction must rely more on market forces. Since the new government is more inclined toward prudence, it will not and cannot bear all the huge fiscal investment needed for the future urbanization level to reach 70% or even higher.

　　President Xi Jinping pointed out during an inspection tour in Shandong in November that urbanization is not land urbanization but population urbanization. Do not try to help the seedlings grow by pulling them up, but let things take their natural course; do not be eager for quick success, but be proactive and prudent.

　　The premise of urbanization is industry. Relying on industry, the agglomeration effect, scale effect, and division of labor and cooperation effect generated by urbanization can be brought into play; otherwise, "ghost cities" will appear. Gu Shengzu said that to avoid the Latin Americanization trap, urbanization needs industrial support.

　　On August 30, Li Keqiang specially invited academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering and relevant experts to listen to a research report on urbanization. Previously, Lu Dadao, the general head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' urbanization project, said in an interview with this newspaper that the scale and speed of urbanization cannot be artificially pushed up. One key point is the supporting capacity of industry.

　　At the academicians' symposium, academicians of the two academies mentioned that urbanization is related to the overall situation of China's modernization. Li Keqiang said at least twice that urbanization is related to the success or failure of China's modernization.

　　Li Keqiang said at the symposium that promoting new urbanization means taking people as the core, quality as the key, and reform as the driving force, so that cities truly become places where people can live in peace and work happily. There is still a lot of work to be done in this regard.

　　Equal emphasis on large cities and small towns

　　The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee meeting on December 3 discussed new urbanization. The Political Bureau proposed that while adhering to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, it is necessary to take the path of new urbanization, introduce and implement the National New Urbanization Plan, implement and improve regional development plans and policies, and enhance the development capacity of underdeveloped areas.

　　In order to change the economic development mode that only seeks "quantity" and not "quality," the Central Organization Department recently issued a notice stipulating that in future various assessments and inspections of local party and government leadership teams and leading cadres, regional GDP and growth rate cannot be the main indicators for evaluating political performance alone.

　　On November 20, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said at the first China-EU Urbanization Expo 2013 that China is formulating and improving a new urbanization plan centered on people, including promoting new urbanization construction by promoting the integration of industry and cities and the coordinated development of large, medium, and small cities and small towns.

　　Regarding the path choice of urbanization, Gu Shengzu believes that it is necessary to adhere to walking on two legs: one leg is to rely on large cities to develop urban agglomerations, drive small cities, and exert radiation effects; the other leg is to develop small and medium-sized cities in the central and western regions.

　　China's 12th Five-Year Plan proposes to promote urbanization by relying on urban agglomerations and focusing on the development of small and medium-sized cities. The western urbanization development plan is now basically clear, and its main content is to combine western urbanization development with the construction of the "New Silk Road," build a western international economic cooperation circle, and build a "bridgehead" for opening to the west and north.

　　Guan Qingyou, deputy director of the Minsheng Securities Research Institute, told this newspaper that as the most important carrier and platform of the "New Four Modernizations," new urbanization has been discussed by many parties for a year since it was proposed at the 18th National Congress last year, and there must be many debates and differences.

　　"This time, the National Urbanization Work Conference is held alongside the Economic Work Conference, more in the hope that under the overall background of deploying the macroeconomy, the idea of taking reform as the main line will be emphasized more, and ideological understanding will be further unified," Guan Qingyou said.