Transcript: Press conference on new urbanization plan
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 19, 2014
Hong Kong Takungpao and its affiliated website: I have two questions. The first one is for Vice Minister Wang Shiyuan from the Ministry of Land and Resources. We have noticed that some voices out there have claimed that the new urbanization will initiate a new round of "Enclosure Movement." Between increasing land supply in cities and ensuring farmer's rights, what kind of work will be done to balance out both?
My second question goes to Xu, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Many investors are eager to learn more about the investment opportunities in the new urbanization round, especially for the high-end service sector that Hong Kong companies take pride in. Could you brief us about such opportunities? Thank you.
Wang Shiyuan: First of all, I want to thank you for your concern about land management and the protection of arable land. In the compilation process of urbanization plan, we as a member did participate in the drafting and reviewing. For example, we gathered the data taken from the second national land survey (July 1, 2007 - Dec. 31, 2009) and used it as basic data in the compilation, largely because the drafting work happened to appear at the same time.
Secondly, we have jointly predicted the urbanization scale for 2020, especially the planned objective to have the per-capita construction scale reach 100 square meters.
On a third note, at the same time, we conducted policy research regarding reforms in land management, which would concern the urbanization plan. On this basis, we offered 27 suggestions, gathered from seven different perspectives, to facilitate the policymaking. It is fair to say our work has strongly backed up the new urbanization planning.
The CPC Central Committee recently issued a series of requirements for land management undertakings. As you know, after the Party's Third Plenum, the Central Economic Work Conference, Urbanization Conference and Rural Work Conference all raised new requirements for land management efforts. Following the new requirements, we will focus on the work from three aspects:
First, the protection of arable land will be a foundation and precondition for urbanization. We will continue our strictest regulations in preserving the quality and quantity of arable land.
At present, we are working together with other government agencies to pilot the consolidation of regulations that apply to economic and social development, urban planning and land use, which in turn means that we are modifying the overall land use planning based on the second national land census.
We will connect all related regulations to the urbanization plan, which would work as a foundation for all regulations. The plan marks all boundaries of the ecological resources, farmlands and city areas with red lines. The scale of the new construction lands would be under strictly control. Cities that need more space should expand their urban area in a linear layout with combined conglomeration and form a satellite town. This will ensure the protection of both farmland and the ecosystem.
Our next step is to gradually reduce the planned quota for new construction land. After consulting the NDRC, we will reduce the quota for 2014, with a priority to control the country's eastern areas, especially those new urban spaces in cluster cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebeiarea, the Yangtze Delta and the Pearl River Delta.
As Vice Minister Xu just mentioned, in developing these cities, we will continue to excavate their full potential as there is still much room left for the development of small and medium cities in these areas. At the same time, we will establish and improve the responsibility system for farmland protection without neglecting the balance between both the use and retrieval of farmland.
Through the abovementioned efforts, there will be positive results in protecting arable land, both in terms of quality and quantity. Following then, we must view land conservation and the intensive use of land as a key and critical task in driving forward urbanization development. We will always abide by the strictest regulations in land conservation to further raise the efficiency of land use in urban construction.
By following the central government's demands, in controlling the increase in land supply, making the most of the present stock of land, optimizing the land structure and raising the land use efficiency, we will innovate land management system.
In checking the inventory of land, the key lies in the redevelopment of "low efficiency land" in rural towns and villages to improve the intensity of land use. We should refine the standards for various types of land. We shall establish an incentive and encouraging mechanism for non-arable lands to exit, including the land allocated to urban area, the land destined for industry development, rural homesteads and other construction purposes.
We will also standardize land remediation to improve the efficiency of rural land use. Based on land conservation and the intensive use of land, we will promote urbanization which in turn improves the attraction of rural townships to both workforce and industries.
Third, we should regard the preservation of farmers' lawful rights as our fundamental purpose in developing people-oriented urbanization. We should prudently advance the reform of the rural land system while deepening the reform in the urban land system.
The Ministry of Land and Resources is joining hands with other government organs in setting an overall agenda for reform and pilot proposals This would include how to deepen the reform of state-owned land and how to expand its different uses.
For the land with collective ownership in rural parts,, we should adhere to such ownership and the protection red lines of the arable land and stick up to the rights and interests of farmers. Under the precondition of legitimacy in city planning and land use regulations, we will allow commercial land with collective ownership to enter the land market. Apart from that, we will release reform measures for land requisition and the use of land for homesteads.
Now that we have outlined these reforms and measures, I think that as long as we can strictly implement them, we can ensure reasonable land use in new urbanization development while at the same time safeguard the country's food security and farmers' rights and interests.
Thank you.
Xu Xianping: Please allow me to answer your second question. The service sector is closely related to urbanization. As cities and towns are gathering growth in both their economy and population, there will be a rising demand for production services -- such as financing, scientific development and intermediary services -- as well as life-related services, including medical service, healthcare and senior care.
Last year, the service sector accounted for 46.1 percent of China's overall economy. But in developed countries, this proportion is usually higher than 70 percent. This gap means there is still much room for the development of the service sector in China.
In boosting new urbanization, Hong Kong companies are welcomed to participate in the development of the service sector on the mainland. We will continue to open up this sector to international investors. Thank you.
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