SCIO press conference on white paper 'Youth of China in the New Era'
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 27, 2022
Phoenix TV:
The white paper has published the percentage of young permanent urban residents, which for the first time is much higher than that of the overall permanent urban residents. The government has also issued the Opinions on Launching the Pilot Program of Youth Development-Oriented Cities. I would like to know what are the major concerns in building such cities? What kinds of measures will be taken in the future? Thank you.
He Junke:
Thank you. Mr. Fu will answer your questions.
Fu Zhenbang:
The youth are attracted to cities, and the cities thrive thanks to the youth. In 2020, young permanent urban residents accounted for 71.1 percent of the total young population in the country. This percentage will keep growing in the future. In the course of China's rapid urbanization, youth are beneficiaries and contributors, and the core driving force. The building of youth development-oriented cities is an important approach to earnestly promoting the people-centered urbanization strategy, as well as a key leverage to vigorously accelerate the implementation of the Middle- and Long-term Youth Development Plan (2016-2025). It is helpful for enhancing the mutual reinforcement between high-quality development of youth and that of cities. We have the following concerns in carrying out this project:
First, it is a requirement for cities to ground efforts in the new development stage, implement the new development philosophy, and build new development patterns. The overall development of youth is an important component of high-quality economic and social development of cities, as well as an important driving force for building cities' new development patterns. As the population size and structure of youth have both undergone historical changes in China, youth as the key factor in promoting the development of cities have become more valuable. Advocating and practicing the concept of giving top priority to youth development will promote their roles in urban development and further stimulate the vitality of cities.
Second, this is an inevitable choice to adapt to the strategic trend of new urbanization and promote youth development. China's urban development has shifted from high-speed development to high-quality development. Over the past decades, great achievements have been made in China's urban development, but problems have also accumulated. Cities are the place where the youth are most concentrated and also where the pressure and contradictions of youth development congregate. Some cities face prominent problems where youth find it hard to secure employment, housing, and living. It is fair to say that without the high-quality development of young people, there would be no high-quality development of cities.
Third, this is a summary and improvement of some cities' pioneering exploration. During the implementation of the Middle- and Long-term Youth Development Plan (2016-2025) in recent years, more than 90 cities, including Shenzhen, Chengdu, Jinan, Ningbo, Suzhou, and Luoyang, have proposed to build themselves into youth-development-friendly cities and promoted relevant work. Shandong, Guizhou, Zhejiang, and other provinces have proposed to build themselves into youth-development-friendly provinces. These local explorations and practices have laid a foundation for us to deploy this work at the national level.
Fourth, this draws on international urban development experience. In recent years, some Western countries have promoted urban progress from the perspective of youth development and paid more attention to promoting peace and contentment in work and life for youth by making efforts in such areas as laws and regulations, development strategies, and public policies. Some countries have designed, promoted, and boosted the youth development indicator system from the perspective of urban attractiveness and public facilities supply. All these practices are useful for us to learn from to do relevant work well.
On April 1, 17 ministries and commissions, including the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Central Committee of the CYLC, jointly issued the "Opinions on the Pilot Construction of Youth-Development-Friendly Cities." The opinions clearly put forward the urban development philosophy of making cities more friendly to youth and enabling youth to make more achievements in cities. It champions giving priority to youth development and correctly understanding and guiding the dialectical relationship between youth development and urban development. The opinions have also made arrangements for the guiding ideology, basic principles, main contents, and work requirements of building youth-development-friendly cities.
To make cities promote high-quality youth development, the opinions proposed that efforts should be redoubled to optimize the seven aspects: a planning environment prioritizing youth development; a fair and quality education environment; an employment environment inspiring youth to harness their talents; a residential environment ensuring youth's basic housing needs; a living environment alleviating the difficulties faced by youth in relationship, marriage, childbirth, and upbringing; a healthy environment promoting the youth's physical and mental development; and a safe environment effectively safeguarding the youth's rights and interests. In a nutshell, these efforts aim at ensuring that young people's rights to education, life, subsistence, labor, habitation, and other rights and interests are fully secured and that cities can provide better space, platforms, environment, and conditions for young people to grow, excel, and succeed.
To make the youth contribute to the high-quality development of cities, the opinions proposed to mobilize the youth in leading cities' civility and morals, participating in innovation and entrepreneurship, making contributions to their positions, partaking in social governance in an orderly manner, and helping improve the citizens' quality of life. In other words, these proposals were designed to let the youth be the main part and masters of urban development so that they can contribute to the high-quality material, political, cultural, social, and eco-environmental progress in cities.
As we can see, the opinions have attracted wide attention and triggered heated discussion in society after its release. Many cities are actively applying for relevant pilot projects. These cities are wise and far-sighted since winning the hearts of youth means securing success both in the present and in the future. In pursuing this work, we do not apply a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, we fully respect the realities at the community level and take the approach of conducting pilot programs before launching nationwide measures. We also welcome cities that have not taken part in the pilot projects to voluntarily engage in. We hope that after two years of implementing pilot programs, dozens of cities can be identified for pioneering exploration and give rise to a set of practices that can be replicated to facilitate young people's work, study, settling down, living, and child-raising. In this way, we hope to help solve the pressing difficulties and problems that are of the greatest concern to young people, give better play to their abilities in innovation and creativity, and promote high-quality urban development.
We recognize that the work needs long-term efforts, so care and support and opinions and suggestions from all sectors of society, including friends from the media, are welcomed and appreciated. We also hope that Party committees and governments at all levels will attach significance to building youth-development-friendly cities by adding more efforts to their organizing work and guidance to make our cities more suitable for the youth to live and work. Furthermore, we believe that the phased-in implementation of the Opinion and the practical exploration of pilot cities, starting with individual practices that are expected to be applied in a larger scope, will surely promote the effective and in-depth implementation of the medium and long-term plan for youth development. Backed by such efforts, we will be able to continue to increase the sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security of the youth in the development of cities, reflect the Party's institutional strength of its youth work in the effective policies and deliver the care and support of the Party to the youth. Meanwhile, we will pursue a new way for high-quality city development in the new development stage. That's my answer. Thank you.
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