The National Development and Reform Commission recently issued the "Key Tasks of New Urbanization and Urban-Rural Integration Development in 2022 " (hereinafter referred to as "Key Tasks"). Focusing on social concerns, the spokesperson of the Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission answered reporters' questions, saying that promoting the orderly urbanization of migrant rural population is the primary task of new-type urbanization, while the development of mega megacities and counties should be specifically noticed, and the construction of new-type cities should be accelerated.
The urbanization of migrant rural population should be "improved in quality"
"Promoting the urbanization of the resident population capable of stably living and working in cities is the primary task of new urbanization. Efforts should be made to improve the urbanization quality of the migrant rural population and promote the integration of the migrant rural population into the city." The spokesperson said.
According to the "Key Tasks", in the household registration, based on the local resources and environment carrying capacities and actual needs of economic and social development, cities should unblock the registration for the migrant rural families who live and work stably in cities. Cities with less than 3 million resident population will fully abolish the registration restrictions. Cities implementing score system policies for household registration need to ensure that the number of years of social security payments and residence account for a major proportion in the score.
In terms of basic urban public services, the "Key Tasks" call for the active expansion of public school spaces, in order to ensure the children who move with migrant workers to have equal access to compulsory education with major actions taken by municipal governments and public schools. Implement the policy of enrolling migrant children based mainly on their residence permits. For private compulsory education schools with a high proportion of migrant children, prioritize to include them in the scope of government purchase of school spaces. Promote the expansion of insurance coverage, especially for the new generation of migrant workers. Promote enterprises to pay social insurance premiums for migrant workers including pension, medical, work injury, unemployment and maternity. Rationally guide migrant workers in flexible employment to participate in basic medical insurance and basic pension insurance according to regulations.
At the same time, strengthen the employment services and skills training for migrant workers, and carry out subsidized training for 6 million migrant workers. Further increase the support of the central funds for urbanization, and promote the establishment of provincial financial incentive funds, with emphasis on supporting cities that absorb a large number of rural migrants across municipalities to settle down.
The spatial layout and form of urbanization should be "optimized"
The spokesperson indicated, in 2022, optimize the spatial layout of urbanization, promote the coordinated development of small, medium and large cities base on urban clusters and metropolitan areas, especially to grasp the development of both megacities and small counties
First, enhance the carrying capacity of city clusters and metropolitan areas. Issue annual action plan for the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. Issue and implement the "14th Five-Year Plan" for the development of city clusters in the Triangle of Central China, Beibu Gulf and Guanzhong Plain. Cultivate and develop modernized metropolitan areas, and improve the metropolitan areas with provincial-level coordination, central cities taking the lead and neighbouring cities work collaborately.
Second, promote the transformation of the ways of development of mega-cities, reasonably control the population density, decentralize non-core functions, improve the functions of new suburban cities, and promote multi-center, multi-level cluster development.
Third, promote the urbanization process in which counties are important carrier. Support a number of counties in better conditions to develop, to better meet the needs of farmers migrant to counties with employment and living needs, as well as county residents work and living needs.
In addition, consolidate the results of the characteristic towns specification correction, focus on quality, strictly control of the amount of towns, and promote the standardized and healthy development of characteristic towns.
"The overall development of China's urban clusters in the primary stage, all the regions should respect the objective rules, base on the stage of development, and promote development scientifically and orderly." The spokesperson pointed out, the cultivation should be gradual and rely on megacities or large cities with strong radiation. The metropolitan area is an urban spatial pattern when large cities have developed to a certain stage that closely interact with surrounding cities and counties. For regions not yet mature, comparison is not encouraged. At the same time, the spatial scope should be determined scientifically and reasonably. The formation and development of metropolitan areas has its objective rules, with the close people and economic links among cities as important features, and the 1-hour commuting circle being the basic scope. The study to determine the spatial scope should be realistic, intensive and efficient, while not blindly expanded.
New-type of cities to "speed up" development
"Urban construction should pay attention to not just the appearance, but more to the details in urban development. The spokesperson of the Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission pointed out that the current population living in cities and towns in China has reached more than 900 million people, and will continue to increase in the future. We need to optimize the concept of urban development, the construction of livable and workable cities, to create a space for people to live in high quality.
According to the "Key Tasks", first is to start the implementation of urban aging gas and other pipeline renewal, improve flood control and drainage facilities. Second is to promote urban renewal in an orderly manner, to transform the living conditions of 8.4 million families of old neighborhoods. Obtain a market-based approach to promote the transformation of old factories in large cities, and transform a number of large old neighborhoods and urban villages in accordance to local conditions. Third, strengthen the protection of historical and cultural heritage, strictly prohibit the arbitrary demolition of old buildings, large-scale relocation and cutting of old trees. Fourth, strengthen spatial governance, steadily promote the draft of city and county territorial spatial plan, propose and report to the State Council for approval for the territorial spatial plan review rules.
In terms of urban-rural integration, the spokesperson stressed that even if China basically achieves urbanization, there will still be about 400 million people living in rural areas. To narrow the gap between urban and rural development and residents' living standards, it is necessary to make great efforts to reform and explore in promoting the free flow of urban and rural factors in both directions and the reasonable allocation of public resources, so as to supplement agricultural production with industrial production, for cities to lead the development of rural areas, and provide institutional guarantee for the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.
First, to promote urban public services to cover rural areas, to promote the balanced and high quality development of compulsory education in the county area, and construct a closely linked medical community within counties. Second, promote the extension of urban infrastructure to rural areas, promote the extension of water and gas supply and heating networks to the suburban villages and larger central towns in accordance to local conditions, construct cold chain logistics, e-commerce platform and farmers' market network to link urban and rural areas. Third, steadily promote pilot projects of reformations, promote the 11 national pilot areas for urban-rural integration and development to speed up reform exploration, and promote a number of typical models of urban-rural integration and development in due course. Fourth, promote the effective linkage between the consolidation and expansion of poverty eradication with rural revitalization.
Source: <//www.stufic.com/news/view?id=12348&cid=12>
Translated by Fan Junyi
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