Zhou Tianyong: Only by reforming rural land can we stimulate rural vitality

2020-11-27 23:12| Publisher: 2233| see: 662| comment: 0|original author: Zhou Tianyong

abstract: Through the reform of the urban-rural land system, based on real estate such as land and houses, unleashing the vitality of entrepreneurship and employment, increasing residents' income from entrepreneurship and employment, expanding consumption with the ability to pay, eliminating overproduction, and extending industrialization, it is an important driving force for the future high-speed growth of China's economy. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Decision on Formulating the National Constitution ...
       Through the reform of the urban-rural land system, based on real estate such as land and houses, unleashing the vitality of entrepreneurship and employment, increasing residents' income from entrepreneurship and employment, expanding consumption with the ability to pay, eliminating overproduction, and extending industrialization, it is an important driving force for the future high-speed growth of China's economy.

      In the explanation of the "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long Range Goals for 2035", it is proposed that in the process of soliciting opinions, some local and departmental suggestions should clearly propose the "14th Five Year Plan" economic growth rate target, and clearly propose the "14th Five Year Plan" economic growth rate target2035To achieve the goal of doubling the total economic output or per capita income annually. After careful research and calculation, the document drafting group believes that from the perspective of economic development capacity and conditions, China's economy has hope and potential to maintain long-term stable development, and reach the current high income national standards by the end of the 14th Five Year Plan2035It is entirely possible to double the total economic output or per capita income annually.

Calculated in constant values, future15The annual growth rate required is4.73%。

After the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society, whether from the perspective of achieving the first step of modernization strategy or supporting and stabilizing the high-speed growth rate of the national economy, urban residents need to provide more public services and gradually reduce the costs of education, medical care, housing, elderly care, etc.

However, the focus is on making every effort to8After about 100 million rural residents with registered residence have entered a well-off society, their income level will be rapidly raised, so that they can transform from workers without assets to residents with assets and wealth. In the process of satisfying their consumption in the industrial era, gradually achieving a class that owns and enjoys good courtyards, comfortable living, durable industrial goods, smart appliances, and cars, as well as wealth and daily consumption. In the agricultural economy and society, residents hold land to build houses, purchase or rent land for farming, animal husbandry, animal husbandry, and textile production, creating wealth from the agricultural era such as farming, livestock breeding, residential gardens, and grain and cotton cloth. Urban residents build their own houses, which can be rented out to others for consumption. They can also operate their own shops, set up catering inns, and build workshops for processing and manufacturing. Based on real estate, they invest and start businesses to obtain property and entrepreneurial income. However, in both rural and urban areas, land and real estate are mainly used as wealth of life and means of production. In modern market economy society, to increase the wealth and income of rural residents, including low-income urban residents, it is necessary to liberalize the construction methods of urban and rural housing. Due to the deepening and expansion of factor market transactions, in the market economy, the nature of urban and rural land and housing, especially various types of land and homesteads in rural areas, as a means of life and means of production, is weakening, while the nature of wealth as an asset and capital is strengthening.

Under the premise of complying with the large-scale land use plan, rural residents can use some of their property rights land for trading and obtain transactional income; You can rent out your own farmland, grassland, forest land, and fish ponds with property rights, expand your residence to use as an inn, and earn rental income; Funds can be obtained through land based mortgage, and other types of investment and entrepreneurship can be conducted in different places; You can add floors to your own homesteads with property rights and construct residential buildings on land that meets the planning requirements, in order to obtain income from real estate sales or rental; Can build small processing plants, gas stations, inns, farmhouses, etc. on their own land with property rights to use, and obtain operating income; You can convert your own land with property rights into shares in other hydropower stations, oil fields, coal mines, transportation hubs, large factories, high-speed railways, oil and gas pipelines, power plants, etc. to obtain dividend income; You can build agricultural greenhouses, field houses, sightseeing trails, tree planting, and water gates on your own land with property rights; You can build comfortable and satisfactory courtyards and villas on the homestead that you own and use property rights to use. Only in this way can we revitalize rural land assets and increase farmers' wealth and property income.

In cities, the same applies to residents in residential communities, villages or suburbs. They use the ground floor of buildings and courtyards to purchase some land and buildings in the city, establish restaurants, hotels, shops, clinics, hairdressing and other service industries on the street, and build processing factories and logistics parks that serve the city. Whether rural or urban residents, they have accumulated wealth and obtained income from entrepreneurship and investment based on land and real estate; For other workers, they have obtained employment opportunities and increased their wage income; For the government, the unemployment rate has been reduced, unemployment and subsistence allowances have been reduced, and relevant taxes have been increased; For the entire national economy, a virtuous cycle of "production income consumption production" is formed, resulting in an increase in wealth,GDPStable growth.

However, from the current system perspective, China is the country with the strictest management of construction projects at all levels and sizes.2019According to the China Business Environment released by the World Bank in, China lags behind in the field of "applying for construction permits" and ranks third among global economies121Bit. For example, in China, enterprises need to complete all permits and authorizations for building a warehouse20The average program in East Asia and the Pacific is15Item. There is a trend of neat and unified planning and administrative control in the construction of residential buildings in China, which requires land approval for all residential construction, and the supply proportion of residential land is very small; All residential construction must go through planning, even detailing the design of courtyards and living rooms; All residential buildings hope to be built through real estate development companies, and do not want or allow residents to build their own houses, nor do they want residents to organize and cooperate in building houses; All old village renovations, courtyards, and residential buildings need to be demolished, and dozens of floors of residential buildings will be built by real estate development companies; Almost all urban and suburban villages in the city need to be demolished and built into wide avenues and dozens of story high buildings. Rural residents who renovate their homes, add floors to their rooms, paint the exterior walls, plant trees in their homes, even build livestock pens and poultry houses, and build greenhouse, guard houses, processing houses, canal sluices, etc. in farmland, fish ponds, orchards, forest land, grassland, etc., must be approved by the county (district), street and township governments, including development and reform, land, construction, planning, environmental protection, forestry, urban gardens, urban management, agriculture, fire protection, water Intervention by many departments and institutions such as electricity and water supply. Waiting for approval at every stage, such as filling out materials and submitting to various departments, is inefficient, takes a long time, and even procrastinates, resulting in getting stuck and demanding.

The construction and actions under the thinking of planned economy and administrative regulation have led to a series of social and economic problems in China. Firstly, local governments and real estate development companies have formed a community of interests, which has harmed the interests of urban and rural residents. Scholars specializing in this issue (Xue Baogui, He Liancheng,2019)Research has shown that:(1)In the process of converting agricultural land into non agricultural land or rural construction land into urban construction land, there are land appreciation benefits. However, the virtualization of land property rights caused by collective ownership of rural land weakens farmers' bargaining power and prevents them from fully enjoying the land appreciation benefits.2009—2011 The agricultural land compensation fees received by farmers during the year only accounted for half of the total income from the non agricultural conversion of agricultural land13%Around, the majority of the land appreciation benefits are occupied by local governments. Due to the virtualization of rural land property rights, local governments have an advantage in the game with the peasant class, obtaining most of the land appreciation benefits, and monopolizing the primary market of urban land supply through the acquisition of rural land. The monopoly of local governments on the primary market of urban land supply allows them to maintain high land prices and obtain high land transfer fees by controlling land supply.

  (2)Real estate developers made huge profits. Due to the fact that the real estate market is a seller's market, real estate enterprises can transfer high priced land to the general public through high housing prices. As a neutral policy maker, the central government requires local governments to suppress housing prices for the sake of people's well-being. However, due to the integration of interests between local governments and real estate enterprises, local governments are more likely to implement capital biased policies. Real estate enterprises capture local governments through tax donations, and strategically resolve the land, credit, tax, and affordable housing policies that the central government suppresses housing prices, maintaining high housing prices. This has enabled many real estate developers to gain excess profits from government administrative monopolies and real estate development.

  (3)High housing prices benefit local governments and real estate companies, greatly eroding the interests of rigid demand for urban housing. They must increase savings and reduce consumption in order to purchase a house. In the context of high housing price to income ratio, in order to achieve a rigid demand for housing, the citizen class will choose to use financial leverage for mortgage purchase, which in turn will introduce financial institutions to erode the welfare of citizens, making the citizen class become slaves to housing. It can be seen that in the interest game with local governments and real estate enterprises, the farmers and citizens are at a disadvantage and their interests are damaged, while the addition of financial institutions further erodes the welfare of rigid housing demanders among urban residents. As mentioned earlier, China's government monopolies, planned adjustments, and administrative controls on land and property transactions, construction, and use have had a serious negative impact on the healthy operation, growth, and development of the national economy. They have severely compressed the possible conditions for urban and rural residents to start businesses and invest based on real estate, and suppressed the vitality of the urban and rural economy; Seriously affecting the expansion of employment opportunities, and even eliminating a large number of job positions; Widening the wealth and income gap between low-income and high-income groups in urban and rural areas; In the fields of transactions, construction, and operation related to real estate, rent-seeking and corruption are formed. Each department has issued its own work requirements and indicators, ranging from building toilets and styles that also require approval. It lists and formulates regulations such as the distance and area within which restaurants cannot be opened, and conducts inspections and supervision on environmental protection, hygiene, greening, and stability maintenance. It holds accountable and carries out "one vote veto", and strengthens its own construction plans such as urban planning, farmland indicators, construction projects, and various qualifications The approval authority for green areas, childbearing, and so on, all interfere with the size, color, font, and material of billboards, drive out floating and permanent populations from the city, and prohibit small businesses, shops, and mobile vendors. In fact, it is a return to a departmental planned economy and administrative control system. If the awareness, regulations, and actions of various departments become increasingly strong, the previously unified planned economy of each department will still be confined and strong, and local, grassroots, enterprises, and residents will be unable to innovate, do things, start businesses, operate, and obtain employment, making the vitality of the national economy impossible to talk about. This cannot be said to be a very important reason for the downward trend in the growth rate of the national economy.

The most urgent task now is to develop a negative list of construction in both urban and rural areas, especially in the field of rural real estate construction. The fewer negative projects, the better; Urban and rural residents can engage in activities that are not prohibited by law; The admission matters and application materials should be clearly informed, and the completion time should be limited. Failure to inform upon expiration will be deemed as consent; The government only manages land use planning, building safety, transaction taxation, etc., and cannot manage too much or too much beyond the limits. The organizational forms of rural economy can include individual farmers, sole proprietorships, joint-stock cooperation, limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, and other forms.

The collective economy cannot go through the old path of the Production brigade. It must be a new type of collective economy with clear property rights, clear responsibilities, rights and interests, entrepreneurial talents, high efficiency, adequate supervision, and operating costs that are compatible with the size of the organization. Various forms of ownership organization should be voluntarily chosen, tailored to local conditions, equal competition, market selection, and survival of the fittest. Collective economy requires special leaders' human capital, consideration of institutional costs, adaptation to the productivity level of each village, and conditions such as transportation, geography, and industrial choices that are suitable for collective survival and development.

It should not be imposed on people's will and preference. Rural cooperatives should not engage in formalism or fake collective economy. Some traditional collective economy models that have been established in the past, such as low efficiency and high debt, inequality in labor distribution between village collective economy and migrant workers, and problems in replacing collective leaders, indicate that in the current low level of cultural productivity in rural China, simply choosing the collective economy still poses great risks and lacks objective promotion. From the perspective of national economic statistics, in the economic composition, the collective economy, whether in urban or rural areas, cooperatives, secondary light industry and commerce in cities, as well as large collectives affiliated with state-owned enterprises, some have already disappeared, and some have a very small proportion. Under the premise of training, demonstration, and villagers choosing leaders and operators themselves, adapting to the improvement of cultural productivity level of rural residents in China, developing a new collective economy that is in line with the market economy, that is, gradually developing land equity, land stock cooperation, land investment limited liability companies, land conversion limited liability companies, and forming land asset entrusted agency management companies, Realize the optimized allocation of rural land elements and the scale and modernization of agriculture.

From the perspective of the economy of infrastructure construction, the aggregation economy of population and market, and the convenience of providing residents with education and medical public services, villages should be moderately concentrated, with small villages becoming large villages and large villages gradually developing into small market towns and small towns; Some larger organic towns should gradually develop into small cities. The supply of residential land should be increased. In these villages, small towns, and towns, including some county towns and small cities, independent homesteads, villas, and low rise buildings should be encouraged, rather than the construction of dozens of high-rise residential buildings. The latter type of narrow and enclosed living is not conducive to the formation of commercial blocks, the harmony of interpersonal and social relationships in the community, and the improvement of fertility rate; It has also damaged the architectural landscape of villages, towns, and small cities. In an area with many low-rise buildings, there are more than a dozen or so picturesque high-rise buildings that climb into the clouds like dozens of flagpoles. In the open mountains and rivers, this is simply a clash between modern Hong Kong in the air and African villages on the ground. Even in developed countries and regions such as Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Europe, such scenes are rare in rural areas, small towns, and small cities.

We should not adopt the method of large-scale demolition and construction for old cities and villages within cities, but should choose the planning and action of rebuilding old cities and villages within cities: preserving traditional and historical architectural culture, and protecting historical buildings; Transforming transportation, safety, fire protection, drainage, water supply, power grid, communication, gas supply, etc., with public facilities and venues such as schools, police stations, community hospitals and clinics, libraries, sports, rest, and socializing; Forming residential communities and small streets and alleys, encouraging the development of shops, restaurants, inns, and vegetable markets, not only increasing entrepreneurial and employment opportunities, but also facilitating residents' shopping and life.

Of course, it is necessary to severely crack down on drug abuse, gambling, and usury in rural areas, and reduce the improper supply market formed by the liberalization of land and homestead transactions; It is strictly prohibited to purchase, hoard, and speculate in the sale of land in rural areas. We should take advantage of the collective ownership of land, balance the distribution of income between different planned land uses in the village, and impose differential taxation on the differences formed by factors such as land location and infrastructure. We should reform the compensation for land acquisition and relocation into taxes such as market price acquisition and income appreciation. Rural land and homesteads should be opened to any demand market outside the village, and it is strictly prohibited to merge low-priced power within the village, To achieve a fair distribution of real estate benefits.

In short, through the reform of the urban-rural land system, based on real estate such as land and houses, unleashing the vitality of entrepreneurship and employment, increasing residents' income from entrepreneurship and employment, expanding consumption with the ability to pay, eliminating overproduction, and extending industrialization, are important driving forces for the future high-speed growth of China's economy.

The author is the director of the National Economic Engineering Laboratory at Northeastern University of Finance and Economics and the former vice president of the International Strategy Research Institute of the Central Party School. This article is excerpted from "China: Ideal Economic Growth"
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