How to promote the healthy development of urbanization

Urbanization is the historical task of China's modernization, but it is a natural historical process. At present, the urbanization of China has entered a critical stage. Under the correct guidance, urbanization will become a sustained driving force for economic development. If we don't go well, it will bring many contradictions and problems, suffer from "urban disease" and affect the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way. Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about new urbanization, and various local plans with urbanization as the theme have emerged one after another. However, we should be soberly aware that in some places, all kinds of vague understandings have really covered up the connotation of new urbanization and blurred the development direction and policy focus of new urbanization. For example, some local leaders think that urbanization is to build a new city, expand the old city, expand the urban area, stimulate real estate and engage in industrialization, while others think that urbanization is to tear down the countryside, eliminate the countryside and let farmers seize the opportunity to go upstairs, and so on. The concept of urbanization is "generalized" at will; Urbanization has become a basket in which everything can be put, and the policy focus has been misunderstood. These signs are already very obvious. Only by correctly understanding the connotation of new urbanization can we promote the healthy development of urbanization. At present, it is very important to return to the correct logical starting point in understanding and understanding the fundamental issues such as what urbanization is and what it is not. It is necessary to deeply analyze why urbanization "goes wrong" in local practice from multiple angles; More importantly, we should explore how to consolidate our understanding of urbanization and promote the healthy development of urbanization along a main line. The logical starting point of promoting new urbanization is "people". Theoretically speaking, urbanization is a human behavior process, that is, people in rural areas "become" people in cities and towns. The process of population concentration in cities and towns is the basic connotation of urbanization. From the historical background, in China, urbanization mainly means that the rural population has broken through the barriers of the urban-rural dual system for decades and entered the urban work and life. Obviously, the transformation of farmers and migrant workers is the main body of urbanization. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a series of systems such as household registration, employment and social security restricted rural people from entering the city. Since the late 1970s, after a series of institutional reforms, the household registration, employment and social security systems have been relaxed. However, if rural people want to work and live in cities and towns, they will still encounter all kinds of "barriers" that are either explicit or implicit. According to the reality, by the end of 20 12, the urbanization rate of China will reach 52.6%. According to the general situation of a modern developed country and the national conditions of China, the urbanization rate of China may eventually reach over 70%. In other words, in the next two or three decades, nearly 300 million rural people will be transformed into urban population. At the same time, we should also see that most of the migrant workers who have been counted as urban population do not have urban household registration and cannot enjoy all public services of urban residents. This part of the population is about 250 million, which can be called "semi-urbanization" population. Together, how to turn more than 500 million people into citizens has become the most urgent practical problem of urbanization in China. From the perspective of policy design, there is still a huge gap between the rural registered population and the urban registered population in compulsory education, basic medical care, affordable housing and other basic public services. In recent years, many central documents have repeatedly stressed that it is necessary to actively and steadily promote farmers to continue to enter the city, promote the citizenization of migrant workers, and promote the equalization of basic public services among farmers, migrant workers and citizens by formulating a series of urbanization policies. Judging from the theory, history, reality and policy design intention, the logical starting point of urbanization is the word "people" and the essence is citizenization. Migrant workers and farmers are the main bodies and the most important beneficiaries in the process of urbanization. The key point of urbanization policy is to make migrant workers and everyone in the peasant group enjoy basic public services like urban residents, that is, the citizenization of farmers and migrant workers. People are the logical starting point of urbanization, and the citizenization of farmers and migrant workers is the essence and main task of urbanization. Focusing on super-large-scale urbanization, on the basis of intensive land conservation, further improve the urban population carrying capacity; Accelerate the development of various productive and life service industries to meet the employment needs of the population entering the city; We should actively support and develop all kinds of rental housing and affordable housing to solve the housing problem of the population entering the city; Reasonably predict the scale and speed of population entering the city, solve the problem of urbanization of migrant workers in an orderly, classified and gradual manner, actively and steadily promote farmers to enter the city, and maintain the healthy and sustainable development of urbanization. The first reason why urbanization deviates from its origin is understanding. The concept, history and present situation of urbanization, as well as the deployment and policies of urbanization are not well understood or biased. Some local leaders believe that urbanization means urban construction, urban investment, building houses in Gai Lou and letting farmers go upstairs. The sooner the better. The second is the problem of path dependence. Since the reform and opening up, the enthusiasm for urbanization has been very high from top to bottom. Some traditional patterns or paths have been formed in various places. For example, some cities along the eastern coast have expanded their urban areas by withdrawing counties to build districts and withdrawing counties to set up cities. Some places have started a number of large projects through industrialization, accumulated financial resources and improved urban infrastructure; In some places, through large-scale real estate development, many high-rise buildings have appeared in urban areas, reflecting the modern urban appearance. At present, although "new urbanization" is hotly debated, many places in action are still on the previous track. The third is the assessment and evaluation mechanism for local leaders. At present, the evaluation mainly depends on whether the local government has carried out economic construction, because the overall goal of national economic growth needs to be decomposed into various places to undertake. In addition, the appearance of a city is a "business card" of a city, which has high comparability and strong visibility and is easy to establish political achievements for local officials. When a superior leader visits a city, he often visits the widest roads, the most beautiful streets and the most magnificent landmark buildings in the city, mainly to praise the external appearance of the city. Fourth, the local registered population will put pressure on the local government. The local population exerts explicit or implicit pressure on the local government, demanding that the local government give priority to meeting the needs of the local registered population in terms of living environment, infrastructure and public services, and impose certain restrictions on the foreign population. It is the only way for China to realize modernization, and it is also one of the most important strategic opportunities for China to unify its understanding and unswervingly promote "new urbanization". Recognizing the logical starting point of urbanization and promoting the development of urbanization along the correct main line can give full play to the comprehensive effect, long-term effect and overall effect of urbanization, promote long-term stable and rapid economic growth, promote the adjustment and upgrading of economic structure, and form a new situation of urbanization development with orderly population transfer, intensive use of resources, good environmental protection, strong industrial support, reasonable urban form and shared development achievements. If we can't find the focus of urbanization development and lose the main line of urbanization, urbanization will only bring one-sided, short-term and partial effects. Such urbanization will excessively consume future resources, accumulate contradictions between urban and rural areas, and accumulate contradictions and problems between different groups in the city; It will bring all kinds of "urban diseases" that are more difficult to cure. Fundamentally speaking, the deviation of urbanization will damage the "big chess game" of China's new urbanization and delay the precious opportunity of China's modernization. It is an important topic at present to condense the understanding of new urbanization and form a scientific concept of urbanization development. Governments at all levels and departments, especially cities, should improve their understanding of the scientific connotation of urbanization. If you have the right idea, you can act correctly. First, we should learn from the laws of urbanization in other countries, study the special situation of urbanization in China, sum up the experience and lessons of urbanization in the past, and strive for healthy development on the basis of mastering the basic laws of urbanization. Second, urbanization is a natural historical process, which should be actively, steadily and moderately promoted. In the future, China will also transfer the agricultural population equivalent to half of the European Union or two Japanese, and at the same time, solve the problem of citizenization of existing migrant workers in an orderly manner. The level of urbanization depends on the level of economic development and should be adapted to economic development. Urbanization should not be too slow or too fast, and the development speed should be moderate. Third, the urgent task of urbanization is to promote the citizenization of migrant workers. Give priority to solving the problem of citizenization of the families of more than 30 million migrant workers, and solve the problem of citizenization of the "second generation" migrant workers. Attach great importance to the resettlement of landless peasants and properly handle and solve the problems of left-behind children, women and the elderly in rural areas. Fourth, one of the main tasks of urbanization is to make breakthroughs in household registration, land, social security, housing, investment and financing, and market establishment system through reform, so as to reduce the resistance of farmers to enter the city and enhance the comprehensive carrying capacity of cities and towns. It is necessary to promote the development of urbanization through a series of institutional and institutional reforms, give full play to the comprehensive, long-term and overall effects of urbanization development, and create a better and more solid foundation and conditions for further reform. Urbanization is not the same as urban construction and urban economic growth, nor is it blindly expanding urban area, building industrial projects, building real estate and demolishing houses on a large scale. The core content of urbanization is a series of profound reforms and the interaction between reform and development. We should grasp the main contents of urbanization. Fifth, the smooth progress of urbanization depends on the coordination and balance among the main bodies. To promote urbanization, there will be a series of resource allocation and interest adjustment between the central and local governments, between local provinces, cities, counties and townships, between the eastern and central and western governments, between the governments of export and inflow areas, between cities and villages, between migrant workers and citizens, and between new and old citizens. In this sense, urbanization is a profound economic and social change. The essence of urbanization policy is to find a lever fulcrum that can incite urbanization and find a balance point acceptable and inclusive to all parties. (Author: Urban and Small Town Reform and Development Center of National Development and Reform Commission)