A 2000-word paper on urbanization-promoting rural urbanization.
Urbanization is a historical process from a traditional rural society dominated by agriculture to a modern urban society dominated by industry and service industry. The level of urbanization is constantly improving with the development of industrialization. In 2005, the urbanization rate in Britain has reached more than 90%, and at present, the urbanization rate in China has exceeded 50%. Urbanization has promoted the scale and specialization of the economy, but it has also produced problems such as dense population, traffic congestion, housing shortage and environmental pollution. Promoting the process of rural urbanization has become an important means to maintain the sustained and rapid development of China's national economy.
Keywords: urban agglomeration; Rural urbanization; agriculture
First, the positive significance of rural urbanization
Throughout the process of urbanization in developed countries and the rapid development of urbanization in China, urbanization in suburbs will be accompanied in the later period of urbanization in the next 20-30 years. A study by consulting firm McKinsey shows that in 20 1 1 year, one fifth of the world's population lives in only 600 cities, and cities create 60% of the world's output value. With the increase of private cars, people's work scope has greatly increased. At the same time, with the improvement of traffic conditions, enterprises can also build industrial parks in suburbs. Can also adjust measures to local conditions, to the town as the center to establish agricultural production and processing base; Make full use of the existing technologies and means in cities and towns, realize one-stop production and operation, and truly realize and develop the large-scale operation of agricultural industry relying on urbanization.
China is forming 23 urban agglomerations, but the capacity of urban agglomerations such as Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Rim is limited, and the situation of water resources and traffic congestion is very severe. The construction of 2856 county-level administrative units in China is of great significance for solving the floating resettlement of hundreds of millions of farmers, developing local economy, solving the employment of labor force, greatly reducing the living costs of cities such as transportation and housing, and laying a good foundation for national stability and sustainable economic development.
Take Zhejiang Province, where rural urbanization is relatively successful, as an example. 20 1 1 year, the per capita housing of farmers in Zhejiang province has reached 60.8 square meters, and the per capita housing area of urban residents has reached 36.9 square meters. Jiangsu-Zhejiang Highway, a small building with several floors for every household in rural areas, is no worse than a city villa. Convenient transportation and comfortable living environment. 20 1 1 year, the per capita income of farmers in Zhejiang is 1307 1 yuan, which is one of the provinces with the smallest income gap between urban and rural residents in China. Let people see the benefits of urbanization and have a lot of reference significance.
Second, China's urbanization process and its negative impact
The urbanization process in China can be divided into three stages:
The first stage is the restriction stage of urbanization (1949- 1978). From the climax of going to the countryside in the early days of the People's Republic of China to 1962- 1965? Prohibit the transfer of agricultural labor to cities and non-agricultural industries? During the Cultural Revolution, millions of educated youths went to the countryside.
The second stage is rapid urbanization (1979-2000). Although the urbanization process in China started late, it developed rapidly. The urbanization rate increased from 1979 to 36.22% in 2000. Affected by the Asian financial crisis, a large number of laid-off workers slowed down the pace of urbanization.
The third stage is the high-speed development stage (after 2000). With China's entry into WTO and the improvement of economic development environment, as well as the introduction of various national and local support policies, it has greatly promoted the transfer of rural labor to non-agricultural industries and cities and towns. From 2002 to 20 1 1 year, the urbanization rate in China developed at an average annual rate of 1.35 percentage points, and the urban population grew at an average annual rate of 20.96 million. 20 1 1 year, and the proportion of urban population reaches 5 1.27%.
Urbanization is an inevitable process of China's economic development. However, with the advancement of industrialization, it has objectively created a more serious ecological environment and social impact on China:
(a) The number of the urban poor has increased dramatically.
According to the China Urban Development Report released by China Academy of Social Sciences on 20 1 1, there are 50 million urban poor people in China. The main reason is that the migration of farmers has led to the migration of poor people to a certain extent. Many well-off families in rural areas are also very sad under the relatively high prices in cities. More and more college graduates stay in big cities for employment. However, due to the change of employment situation, high housing prices and the lag of college students' employment concept, a special group has gradually emerged in the process of urbanization. Ant tribe? Even if the urbanization rate reaches more than 75%, the urbanization process is basically completed. New residents are trying to improve their lives, but many people are facing difficulties. Many people do not have decent housing or even basic sanitation facilities.
(B) the deterioration of urban environment
Air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, solid waste pollution, waste discharge in many cities has exceeded the natural capacity. In 20 12, more than two-thirds of the cities in China and more than 90% of the coastal cities were short of water, which became the main bottleneck restricting the further development of cities. The rapid expansion of urban scale has brought about the rapid growth of urban traffic volume, and urban traffic is increasingly congested. 20 1 1, Beijing took the lead with 52 minutes, followed by Guangzhou and Shanghai with 48 and 47 minutes, which inevitably caused considerable economic losses.
(C) part of the phenomenon of urbanization overheating
The scale of urban construction is too large, the speed is too fast, and the investment in construction exceeds the affordability of all aspects. Over the years, a large number of real estate projects have been built all over China, attracting many buyers. With the rising house prices, more investors become speculators. In Beijing, commercial buildings are vacant. There are 300,000 people crowded on 23 square kilometers in the old city of Ordos. Kangbashi New District is built for the people. The new area has a total area of 352 square kilometers, the urban area is 32 square kilometers and the population is 28,600. Empty city? Become an exhibit of China real estate bubble.
Third, the rural urbanization policy recommendations
Since 1978, China's urbanization policy mainly includes two aspects: one is to support farmers to enter urban employment and encourage farmers to move into cities; Second, the urbanization policy of actively developing small towns has been established. The imbalance between urban and rural development in China is the fundamental reason for the migration of rural population to cities. Urban life is much superior to rural living conditions, such as cultural entertainment, education, finance, transportation, medical care and other software and hardware environments are far better than rural areas. The fundamental solution is to develop the rural economy.
(A) the state still needs to increase financial investment in rural areas and strengthen rural infrastructure construction. Encourage and guide social funds to invest in rural construction. Accelerate the construction of rural roads, drinking water safety, power grid, energy and other infrastructure, do a good job in the basic construction of farmland water conservancy, solve the problems of water supply and drainage and garbage disposal in the village, and improve the public health service capacity of township hospitals.
(2) Determine the function and position of the government in urbanization and realize the transformation of urbanization from government behavior to market behavior. China has a vast territory, with huge differences in environmental and economic levels between the east, the west, the north and the south, and its urbanization process has its own characteristics, so it is impossible to go hand in hand. In the process of urbanization, we must fully take care of and take into account the actual situation and economic development level of all localities, and avoid the government's behavior of expanding or restricting the process of urbanization.
(3) better implement the state's policies and support for agriculture, rural areas and farmers. In view of the brain drain in rural areas, we should improve the quality of existing rural workers and comprehensively carry out vocational skills training for farmers. It is necessary to carry out targeted and easy-to-understand agricultural science and technology training in combination with the needs of agricultural structure adjustment, development of characteristic agriculture and actual production; Carry out agricultural science and technology training according to farmers' needs.
(4) Accelerate the reform of household registration, social security and other related systems. For more than a decade, the price increase in rural areas has been higher than that in cities, making the current rural prices close to urban prices. The rural minimum living standard is only 1/3 of the urban minimum living standard, or even lower. It is urgent to reform relevant policies and systems, so that rural residents and urban residents can be treated equally in national welfare policies, and finally realize that medical insurance, endowment insurance and unemployment insurance can migrate with the population.
(5) Vigorously develop the tertiary industry in cities and towns. Both industry and cities must rely on the circulation and service of the tertiary industry to survive and develop. The more perfect the development of the tertiary industry, it will directly promote the potential of urban environmental construction and sustainable development. Vigorously developing the tertiary industry is conducive to enhancing the sustainable development of agricultural production, promoting the socialization and specialization of industrial and agricultural production, optimizing the production structure and alleviating the employment pressure.
summary
Rural urbanization is a policy that benefits the country and the people. We should take a multi-pronged approach to do a good job in the urbanization of socialist rural areas. In the long run, the rural area is vast, with no high housing prices, good natural conditions and smooth traffic, making it more suitable for people to live. Problems such as inconvenient medical care and relative lack of cultural life are believed to be solved with the continuous improvement of rural infrastructure and the acceleration of urbanization. Coordinating the coordinated development of economy, environment and resources and taking the road of sustainable urbanization will win more and more people to live and work in peace and contentment and become an important guarantee for the sustained economic growth of China.
(About the author: Zou Xiaoguang (198 1? ), male, Shandong Rong adult, a staff member of the Scientific Research Department of Shandong University (Weihai). )