Urbanization refers to the process of transforming rural population into urban population. An important indicator reflecting the level of urbanization is the urbanization rate, that is, the proportion of people living in towns in a region to the total population in the region. Urbanization is the process of population gathering in cities and towns, and it is an inevitable historical stage in the industrialization process of all countries in the world. At present, the level of urbanization in the world has exceeded 50%, and more than half of the population lives in cities. Urbanization: refers to a historical process in which the rural population keeps flowing to cities and towns, and the secondary and tertiary industries keep gathering in cities and towns, thus increasing the number and scale of cities and towns. It mainly shows that with the development of social productive forces, the progress of science and technology and the adjustment of industrial structure, the residence of rural population moves to cities and towns, and the occupation of rural labor force shifts to secondary and tertiary industries. The process of urbanization also reflects the social changes experienced by countries in the process of industrialization and modernization.
This historical process includes four aspects: first, urbanization is the process of transferring rural population and labor force to cities and towns; Second, urbanization is a process in which secondary and tertiary industries gather and develop in cities and towns. Thirdly, urbanization is a process of regional nature and landscape transformation; Fourthly, urbanization includes the process of diffusion and dissemination of urban lifestyle, including urban civilization and urban consciousness. To sum up, it is manifested in two aspects: on the one hand, it is manifested in the change of people's geographical position and occupation, and the evolution of production mode and lifestyle caused by it; On the other hand, it is manifested in the increase of urban population and quantity, the expansion of urban scale and the improvement of urban economy, society, modernization and intensification.
The core of urbanization is the transformation process of population employment structure, economic and industrial structure and the change process of urban and rural spatial community structure. The essential characteristics of urbanization are mainly reflected in three aspects: first, the spatial transformation of rural population; Second, non-agricultural industries gather in cities and towns; The third is the transfer of agricultural labor to non-agricultural labor.
From the perspective of rural urbanization, urbanization has four characteristics: first, the unity of process and stage, with gradual progress as the main feature; Second, the spatial characteristics, manifested as the combination of towns, mainly towns; The third is the characteristics of employment, which is characterized by paying equal attention to industry and agriculture, mainly non-agriculture; Fourth, the characteristics of lifestyle are "foreign" and "foreign", new and old, new and new. According to the development types of urbanization in the world, it can be divided into developed urbanization and developmental urbanization, and their characteristics are different. The western part of China, including Chongqing, belongs to developmental urbanization. Developmental urbanization has five characteristics: first, the original accumulation of urbanization mainly comes from agriculture; Second, urbanization focuses on developing the secondary industry rather than the tertiary industry; Third, urbanization has an obvious dual structure; Fourth, the dynamic mechanism of urbanization is mainly thrust rather than pull; Fifth, the urban poor account for a large proportion in urbanization.
positive impact
From the general international experience, urbanization is closely related to the level of human development. There is a direct positive correlation between the human development index of 17 1 country (region) and the urbanization rate in the world. Among 78 countries and regions with high human development (the human development index is not less than 0.8), 72 countries (regions) have an urbanization rate of over 50%, and only less than 10% of countries (regions) with high human development have an urbanization rate of less than 50%. In addition, among 77 countries (regions) whose urbanization rate exceeds 60%, only two countries have a human development level below 0.7 (lower than the average human development level).
Urbanization is an important driving force of modern economic growth. The agglomeration of population in cities will produce significant economies of scale, which will greatly reduce the average cost and marginal cost of private and public investment, thus generating a larger market and higher profits. With the concentration of population and economic activities in cities, market demand will grow rapidly and diversify, which will promote professional division of labor and further improve economic efficiency (World Bank, 2009). With the development of economic globalization, many new formats, especially R&D and modern service industries, such as financial insurance, information and computer services, must rely on urban development to expand. Moreover, the prosperity and high return of urban industries attract more capital, technology and knowledge, and the integration of these elements will further induce new technological innovation and flow, and promote the formation of emerging industries (OECD, 20 10). Therefore, cities are the most dynamic areas in modern economy.
Urbanization helps to popularize basic public services and improve the quality of public services, thus promoting the improvement of people's education and health. The concentration of population in cities has greatly reduced the average cost of public services such as public infrastructure, education and medical care. Compared with rural areas, cities have obvious advantages in the quality of public services, not only because they have a good economic foundation, but also because they have concentrated excellent related human resources.
Urbanization helps to improve government governance. When farmers leave the countryside and gather in cities, it will affect government governance in many ways. Urbanization has narrowed the distance between the government and the people, and the behavior of the government and its officials has become easier to observe and supervise. The concentration of population promotes the organization and division of labor of social life, the expression of public opinion is more professional and full-time, the cost of spreading public opinion is greatly reduced, and it is easier to take collective action. In developing countries, although the rural population is large, the transaction cost of collective action is relatively high because of the low concentration of population and scattered residence. Therefore, in the process of striving for policy influence, farmers, a larger group, lack equal influence with urban residents.
In the long run, urbanization will also help promote fair development and gradually narrow the development gap between urban and rural areas and regions. As early as 1776, Adam. In The Wealth of Nations, Smith made an incisive exposition on the contribution of urban commerce to rural improvement. He believes that the increase and prosperity of industrial and commercial cities provide a huge and convenient market for rural products, promote the development of rural land, and make rural areas break through the shackles of traditional relations, become more orderly, have a good government, and have personal safety and freedom (Chapters III and IV of The Wealth of Nations).
Judging from the development process of international urbanization in the past 200 years, urbanization has provided great potential opportunities for people's all-round development, including promoting economic development and improving people's living standards, promoting the popularization and quality of public services, promoting the improvement of social governance, and narrowing the gap between urban and rural development and regional development. However, whether this potential opportunity can be turned into reality depends largely on the policy orientation of the government, as well as a country's land policy, economic development mode, and the supply and fair distribution of public services such as employment, housing and social security.
Urbanization has effectively attracted factors of production to gather in cities and towns, promoted the adjustment of industrial structure and the optimal allocation of resources, and has become an important measure to solve employment, realize market expansion and promote new industrialization; Cities and towns undertake a large number of rural surplus labor, which not only drives farmers to increase their income, but also relieves the prominent contradiction of rural population and land shortage to a great extent; Urbanization is conducive to the implementation of the overall national regional development strategy, the coordinated development of urban and rural areas, and gradually narrow the regional differences between urban and rural areas.
Urbanization is the general trend of human civilization progress and economic and social development, and the only way for backward agricultural countries to transform into modern industrial countries.
China's national conditions
After 60 years of urbanization development, we have explored an urbanization road suitable for China's national conditions. In a big country with heavy agriculture and accelerated industrialization, how to develop urbanization is a brand-new undertaking without any precedent. Over the past 60 years, according to our national conditions, we have embarked on a road of coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns.
From "controlling the scale of big cities, rationally developing medium-sized cities and actively developing small cities" to "strictly controlling the scale of big cities and rationally developing medium-sized cities and small cities", we kept exploring until the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed "taking the road of urbanization with China characteristics". China has a large population and a vast territory, so we can't only engage in centralized urbanization, nor can we engage in decentralized small urbanization. Only the combination of centralized and decentralized urbanization, the combination of stronghold and network, and the coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns can be chosen. This is a development path suitable for China's national conditions. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further pointed out: "Promote the coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns in accordance with the principles of overall planning of urban and rural areas, rational layout, land conservation, perfect functions and taking the big as the small." The urbanization rate increased from 10.64% in the early days of liberation to 45.68%. Sixty years ago, industrialization began to drive urbanization, but now, urbanization has achieved a higher level of leap in the interaction with industrial and rural development.
Develop production and prosper economy.
Sixty years of urbanization paved the way for economic prosperity. In 2007, the GDP of cities at prefecture level and above (excluding counties under the jurisdiction of cities) accounted for 63% of the whole country. Nowadays, urban agglomeration based on megacities and with great radiation effect has become an important economic growth pole in China. At the same time, the rapid development of small towns plays a unique role in absorbing the vast rural surplus labor force and transferring it nearby and coordinating urban and rural development. According to the survey of 109 towns conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the employment proportion of primary industry in small towns decreased from 62% in 1985 to 38% in 2005, and the secondary industry and tertiary industry increased from 26% and 12% to 38% and 24% and 58% respectively.
a good life
The theme of Shanghai World Expo "Better City, Better Life" highlights the core of urbanization-human development. "Upstairs and downstairs, lights and telephones, loudspeakers ..." used to be synonymous with urbanization, but now the reality has far exceeded this dream. Some data can better reflect the changes in life brought about by urbanization. The transportation is more convenient. Urban roads have grown from 10 1000 km in the early days of the founding of new China to 250,000 km, and the road area of 4.3 billion square meters has increased 58 times compared with that of the founding of new China. More and more bicycle "riders" have become private car "drivers". Bus, subway, subway and taxi greatly facilitate the daily travel of urban residents and narrow their living radius. The house has become spacious. Before liberation, families with 3 to 5 people lived in each tile house or adobe house accounted for more than 70% of the total number of households. After liberation, it has improved year by year. Especially after the reform and opening up, the housing conditions of urban residents in China have been greatly improved, from small area, poor conditions and no property rights to complete housing facilities and property rights. At present, the per capita living area of urban residents in China has increased from 4.5 square meters in 1949 to 28 square meters in per capita building area. With the strengthening of urban infrastructure construction, urban public service facilities such as education, medical care and culture have also developed by leaps and bounds. Since the founding of New China 60 years ago, schools, hospitals and cultural sites at all levels have mushroomed from coastal areas to inland areas, constantly meeting the needs of urban residents for public services. More importantly, people are pursuing the optimization of their living environment. In the past 60 years, the city is no longer a simple accumulation of reinforced concrete, but a blue sky, fresh air and clean environment. Statistics show that the total area of urban green space in China has increased from 1747493 hectares at the end of 2008 to 1282 1200 hectares at the end of 2008. Both urban sewage treatment plants and harmless treatment facilities of urban domestic waste have experienced rapid development from scratch. Nowadays, more and more cities are committed to building livable cities with comprehensive and coordinated economic, social, cultural and ecological development. Looking at the urbanization development in the 60 years since the founding of New China, it once again proves an irrefutable truth: only by adhering to the people-oriented development strategy and meeting the people's material and spiritual needs will there be inexhaustible motivation and source.
Four persistences
The urbanization rate of 45.68% indicates that China has entered the stage of rapid urbanization. However, our national conditions are that arable land, fresh water, energy and important mineral resources are relatively insufficient, the ecological environment is relatively fragile, the quality of the labor force is low, and various contradictions are intertwined. Therefore, it is an inevitable choice for China to change the development mode of cities and towns and take a resource-saving, environment-friendly and compact urbanization road with China characteristics.
To promote the healthy development of urbanization, we must adhere to the principle of adapting to local conditions and reasonably determine the development goals. There are great regional differences in China, with different urbanization conditions, development levels and development stages. According to the local economic and social development level, location characteristics, resource endowment and environmental foundation, we should reasonably determine the development goals of urbanization in various places, formulate urbanization strategies and related policies and measures according to local conditions, and promote urbanization to adapt to the level of regional economic development and coordinate with regional population, resources and environmental conditions. The eastern region should focus on improving the service function of central cities, promoting the upgrading of industrial structure, accelerating the construction of ecological and environmental protection projects, and focusing on improving the quality of urbanization; The central region should improve the functions of central cities, improve the comprehensive carrying capacity, vigorously improve the comprehensive service level of county towns and central towns, promote the orderly transfer and gathering of population, and focus on building new food and energy materials, equipment manufacturing bases and comprehensive transportation hubs; The western region should focus on large and medium-sized cities, further enhance the ability of population agglomeration, support the development of small towns with characteristics that serve tourism and inland border trade, and increase support for the development of towns in remote mountainous areas, old revolutionary areas and areas with fragile ecological environment; Northeast China should strengthen the construction of regional transportation facilities, energy and electricity, water-saving and energy-saving projects, speed up the transformation of urban infrastructure, attach importance to the construction of resource-exhausted cities, old industrial base cities and forest industry towns in state-owned farm areas, and promote urban development and transformation.
To promote the healthy development of urbanization, we must adhere to the overall planning of urban and rural areas and coordinate the development of urbanization and new rural construction. China's long-standing dual management system and mechanism of urban and rural areas can no longer meet the requirements of rapid urbanization. This requires us to coordinate the development of urbanization and the construction of new countryside from the height of building a well-off society in an all-round way.
Further improve the functions of cities and towns and improve the comprehensive carrying capacity. Guide farmers to concentrate in the central village, strengthen the arrangement of idle rural construction land, and promote the overall intensive saving of urban and rural construction land. Combined with the implementation of the "every village" project, we will strengthen the construction of infrastructure and cultural facilities such as rural roads and communications, and promote the extension of infrastructure and public services to rural areas. Improve rural living and living conditions, so that the vast number of rural residents can enjoy the fruits of reform and opening up.
To promote the healthy development of urbanization, we must adhere to sustainable development and strengthen the planning and management of urban and rural space. It is necessary to put resource conservation and environmental protection in an important strategic position in the development of urbanization, highlighting land-saving, energy-saving, water-saving and material-saving. Basic farmland, important natural and human resources, ecological protection areas and environmentally fragile areas are prohibited and restricted, and construction activities in these areas are strictly controlled. At the same time, it is necessary to delimit the urban growth boundary, improve the utilization efficiency of urban construction land, and promote the compact layout and intensive development of cities and towns.
To promote the healthy development of urbanization, we must adhere to the people-oriented principle and improve the level of cities and towns. It is necessary to strengthen housing construction, especially the construction of affordable housing and low-rent housing, improve the quality of living and make "home ownership". Improve the urban service function, speed up the transformation of "village in city" and urban-rural fringe, reduce the excessive population density in the central city, and increase public green space. Actively develop large-capacity urban rail transit, improve the road network layout, and improve the urban public transport system.
have difficulty
Urbanization is an inevitable process of China's modernization and an important symbol of China's modern civilization. At present, China's urbanization is in a stage of rapid development, but there are many difficulties and the situation is grim. China has a large population, weak foundation, relatively insufficient cultivated land and low quality of labor, which is greatly restricted in realizing the transformation of urban development mode. Therefore, we must find a road suitable for urbanization in China. Resource conservation and environmental friendliness are inevitable choices under many constraints, and they are also the only way to achieve harmonious and stable development of urban and rural areas.
With the further deepening of reform and opening up, China's economy will continue to develop; Implementing Scientific Outlook on Development and building a harmonious socialist society have provided ideological guidance and great development impetus for the urbanization of China. Actively and steadily promoting urbanization and urban development, optimizing resource allocation and adjusting economic structure are important foundations for sound and rapid development of the national economy. Therefore, the current and future period is a period of strategic opportunities for urbanization and urban development in China. Experts from the Ministry of Construction also pointed out a few days ago that China should first coordinate urbanization and new rural construction from the overall height of building a well-off society in an all-round way; According to the overall national regional development strategy, adhere to local conditions, strengthen the classification guidance of urbanization in different regions, and promote urbanization to adapt to the level of regional economic development and coordinate with regional population, resources and environmental conditions; Continue to play the basic role of the market in promoting urbanization, strengthen the planning and management of urban and rural space by governments at all levels, put resource conservation and environmental protection at an important strategic position in urbanization development, and highlight land, energy, water and materials conservation to promote the sustainable development of cities and towns. (The material is taken from the magazine Applied Writing)
The reporter found in interviews in Su Wanchuan and other places that in the process of promoting urbanization, many places took the promotion of urban and rural land planning as a breakthrough, and linked land consolidation with the increase or decrease of urban and rural construction land on a large scale to solve the contradiction between "lack of money" in small town construction and "lack of land" in urban development. However, in practice, urbanization in some places has become a demolition and construction movement, which violates the wishes of farmers and infringes on their interests. The status of farmers as the subject of property right, transaction and distribution is missing.
There are signs of "bad taste" in urbanization, and farmers' interests are greatly damaged.
At present, there are two situations worthy of attention in the urbanization boom in some places. First, many local cadres have a wrong understanding of urbanization, thinking that urbanization means large-scale land acquisition, large-scale demolition and construction of new cities.
A cadre of the local land department told the reporter that due to the state's index control over per capita construction land, some places have made great planning articles in order to break through the index. The planning of small towns, in particular, is insatiable, and it is unrealistic to propose that the population should reach hundreds of thousands or even millions in ten or twenty years, with an area of tens of square kilometers. In his view, it is this blind planning that led to the demolition and enclosure movement in some places.
Second, there are signs of "bad taste" in the urbanization orientation of some places. The starting point of urbanization in some places is to solve the problems of urban expansion and land shortage, but it ignores the improvement of farmers' living standards and the guarantee of other public services. This kind of urbanization with land as the starting point and guidance is undoubtedly easy to infringe on the interests of farmers. The reporter learned from the investigation that in the process of urbanization, the phenomenon that farmers' dominant position is ignored and "voluntary" occurs from time to time.
Secondly, the compensation for land transfer and demolition is low, and the connection of public services is not in place. In interviews with Su Wanchuan and other places, the reporter found that the compensation standards for land acquisition and demolition in the process of promoting urbanization vary from place to place, but the overall standards are too low. Urbanization under the banner of "coordinating urban and rural areas" eventually became "coordinating land", ignoring supporting measures such as social security, education, medical care, health and employment.
Thirdly, farmers are at the end of the distribution chain, and the phenomenon of "weakening" of interests is prominent. The land value-added benefits saved are completely obtained by the government.
During the interview in Chengdu, the reporter also learned that in the practice of coordinating urban and rural areas in the past six years, Chengdu has continuously increased the distribution ratio of farmers and rural areas in development achievements, but local governments are the leaders of this improvement. Farmers are still in a weak position and have no ability to negotiate on an equal footing on key issues such as "distribution ratio, mode and timing".
The "three powers" are vague, and it is difficult to protect farmers' rights and interests.
Farmers' property rights, participation rights and income distribution rights are seriously lacking. Unclear property rights is an important reason that restricts the maintenance of farmers' rights and interests. Because farmers' property rights to land are unclear, farmers' assets can not be effectively protected, and some local governments' forced land acquisition and demolition also appear "openly". It is understood that at present, there are three main types of illegal land occupation in the process of urbanization, that is, rent collection, illegal expansion or establishment of various industrial parks, and unauthorized occupation. Either way, there is a shadow of local government behind it. Forcing farmers to hand over cultivated land, agreeing to demolish houses and withdrawing farmers' contract management warrants; The lack of participation right is the direct reason why farmers' interests are not guaranteed. According to China's "Land Management Law" and its implementing regulations, farmers whose land has been expropriated should enjoy the right to know in advance, the right to know the examination and approval results and the right to know the land compensation. The lack of sovereignty over income distribution is also one of the reasons why farmers' interests are damaged. There are three main sources of farmers' income in the process of industrialization, one is agricultural products income, the other is labor income, and the third is to let farmers share value-added benefits through urban and rural land planning. However, the reporter learned that in this round of urbanization boom, due to the lack of a reasonable and perfect income distribution mechanism for urban and rural land, the enthusiasm and initiative of farmers in some places to participate in urban-rural integration construction are not high.
Beware of the evolution of "coordinating urban and rural areas" into "taking the city as the driving force"
During the interview, some experts pointed out that some local governments transfer farmers' land at low prices, or use the land indicators saved by farmers to replace them in cities through administrative promotion to obtain differentiated income, but only a small part is used to solve the basic old-age security for farmers, and other education, medical care and employment are still at the level of "dual structure". This urbanization of "coordinating urban and rural areas" has actually turned into "eating the countryside by the city", which is a new round of deprivation of farmers' interests.
Many villagers say that urbanization is needed, but it is not a big demolition and construction against the wishes of farmers, nor is it a forced predatory low-price transfer. It is more important to connect farmers' land, houses and other assets with cities, and at the same time connect them with cities in education, medical care, employment, social security and other public services and welfare, so as to realize real urban-rural integration.
Zhu Min, a villager in Tai Po Experimental Zone, told reporters that centralized living and village renovation have improved farmers' living environment and achieved the equalization of urban and rural living environment, which was welcomed by farmers. However, the overall planning of urban and rural areas is not just to let farmers live in buildings. If employment is not solved, security is not perfect, and education and medical care are not matched, farmers will have to squeeze into cities to make a living and will still send their children to cities to study regardless. Houses in small towns, no matter how beautifully built, are just empty shells and lifeless.
He Kaiyin, the promoter of rural tax and fee reform and an expert on "agriculture, countryside and farmers", pointed out that it is inevitable to promote urban and rural overall planning with land as a breakthrough in the case of limited local financial resources. However, farmers are still in a weak position in the balance of attracting investment and getting rich by local governments, and whether they can maximize their interests is rarely considered. There is still a long way for the government and enterprises to make up for their debts in public services and related welfare and truly realize the integration of urban and rural areas after obtaining the differential income and development income from land overall planning. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an effective system to ensure the standardized operation of urbanization and ensure that farmers' interests are not infringed.
By 2009, the urbanization rate of China was 46.6%, and the urban population reached 620 million, ranking first in the world in terms of urbanization scale. At present, the urbanization in China presents typical characteristics of incomplete urbanization, and the urbanization rate is somewhat overestimated statistically. However, the author of the Blue Book also pointed out that the speed and quality of urbanization in China are seriously uncoordinated. "The urbanization of China is a kind of urbanization lacking quality, disharmony and disharmony".
This disharmony is mainly reflected in: the urbanization of land in big cities is faster than that of population; Excessive expansion of big cities and insufficient development of small towns; There are a lot of problems such as "villages in cities" and "garbage besieged cities", and the quality of cities is low.
First, we must strengthen leadership and pay close attention to implementation. It is necessary to put the protection of cultivated land in the dam area and the construction of mountain towns on the important agenda of party committees and governments at all levels, take the top leaders of the party and government as the leader, earnestly strengthen leadership, improve the leadership mechanism, decision-making mechanism and working mechanism, boldly practice and advance in an orderly manner, study and solve major problems in the work in time, and strive to explore the road of cultivated land protection and urbanization that conforms to the actual conditions of each state, city and county. Leading institutions and departments at all levels should give full play to the role of organization and coordination, carry out their duties and cooperate with each other, and implement the work of promoting cultivated land protection and mountain town construction.
Second, we should improve policies and establish incentive and restraint mechanisms. It is necessary to establish and improve mechanisms such as planning, guidance, regulation, incentive and restraint, compensation for cultivated land, protection of farmers' land rights and interests, and linking up the increase and decrease of land resources reserves and construction land to adapt to the protection of cultivated land in dam areas and the construction of mountain towns. Actively explore the way of government leading and market operation, open up financing channels for urban construction through the guidance of limited financial funds, and provide strong financial support for protecting cultivated land in dam areas and building mountain towns.
Third, we should be pragmatic and always safeguard the interests of the masses. We should proceed from reality, respect objective laws, be proactive, do what we can, have big ideas and big measures, plan scientifically, organize and implement them in a down-to-earth manner, and prevent behaviors that are eager to achieve success and rush headlong into action and harm the interests of the masses. In the process of guiding farmers into cities, we must adhere to the premise of farmers' voluntariness and must not force farmers to protect their legitimate rights and interests to the maximum extent.
Fourth, it must be thoroughly publicized and widely known. The decision to protect fertile land in the dam area and build a mountain city involves every household and piece of land in Yunling. In order to make the correct decision-making achieve the positive effect it deserves, we must publicize and mobilize a series of policies in the fullest, widest and deepest way, so that all cadres and the masses know and all cadres understand and support it. The decision that won the support of the overwhelming majority of the people will be successfully realized.