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How to give rural migrants urban amenities
Source: Xinhua |
October 30, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LIKE her peers in the city, the 11-year-old daughter of Chen Haipeng, a woman from central China's Henan Province, finally has her own room.
Chen, 33, left a dark and narrow bungalow in the countryside of Luoyang last August and moved into a 130-square-meter apartment with three bedrooms, through aid from a government-initiated urbanization program.
Under the program, 14,000 people from five villages in the town of Koudian will be relocated by the end of 2014 to a new community with good facilities, including schools, supermarkets, clinics, a culture center and a nursing home.
Relocating rural residents will save land and improve their life quality, said Ren Baojun, secretary of the Communist Party of China committee of Koudian.
The saved land will be used for industrial development or farming. The total amount of arable land will be increased to guarantee food safety, he said.
Unlike her old house, which she only had the right to use and not to sell, Chen owns her new apartment and can trade it on the market if she wants.
Chen's experience epitomizes a positive side of China's rapid urbanization process.
As a traditional agricultural country, China has witnessed a large-scale immigration from the countryside to the cities.
In order to support his family, Chen's electrician husband had worked in the city of Suzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province since 2003. However, when the local government in Koudian introduced new electronics companies at a new industrial park near his hometown, he returned home. He now works at an electronics company and has a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan, almost the same as his salary in Suzhou. Chen found herself a factory job paying 2,000 yuan at the same company.
The farmland Chen left behind has been leased to a large grain planter who pays her rent nearly equivalent what she would earn if she grew and sold her own crops.
Urbanization key to growth
Urbanization will be key to China's sustained growth, since it can generate investment and consumption, especially at a time when China's economy has shown signs of slowing.
China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) calls for the government to implement a strategy of simultaneous industrialization, urbanization and rural modernization. Increasing the urban population and reducing the widening gap between cities and rural areas is crucial for China to continue its economic growth.
Over the past 30-plus years since reform and opening-up, China's urbanization rate has risen from 17.9 percent to today's 51.3 percent, said Premier Wen Jiabao at the Summer Davos Forum in September.
By the end of 2011, about 691 million people were living in cities, according to national statistics.
However, urbanization has its problems, such as urban sprawl, the constant construction of industrial parks and environmental pollution.
Rural residents who want to integrate after moving to cities face many difficulties in employment, social security and housing.
Premier Wen said urbanization is still incomplete because many farmers living in urban areas have yet to enjoy equal treatment. Their problems in employment, social security, education, housing and medical care must be tackled, he said.
Chen, 33, left a dark and narrow bungalow in the countryside of Luoyang last August and moved into a 130-square-meter apartment with three bedrooms, through aid from a government-initiated urbanization program.
Under the program, 14,000 people from five villages in the town of Koudian will be relocated by the end of 2014 to a new community with good facilities, including schools, supermarkets, clinics, a culture center and a nursing home.
Relocating rural residents will save land and improve their life quality, said Ren Baojun, secretary of the Communist Party of China committee of Koudian.
The saved land will be used for industrial development or farming. The total amount of arable land will be increased to guarantee food safety, he said.
Unlike her old house, which she only had the right to use and not to sell, Chen owns her new apartment and can trade it on the market if she wants.
Chen's experience epitomizes a positive side of China's rapid urbanization process.
As a traditional agricultural country, China has witnessed a large-scale immigration from the countryside to the cities.
In order to support his family, Chen's electrician husband had worked in the city of Suzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province since 2003. However, when the local government in Koudian introduced new electronics companies at a new industrial park near his hometown, he returned home. He now works at an electronics company and has a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan, almost the same as his salary in Suzhou. Chen found herself a factory job paying 2,000 yuan at the same company.
The farmland Chen left behind has been leased to a large grain planter who pays her rent nearly equivalent what she would earn if she grew and sold her own crops.
Urbanization key to growth
Urbanization will be key to China's sustained growth, since it can generate investment and consumption, especially at a time when China's economy has shown signs of slowing.
China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) calls for the government to implement a strategy of simultaneous industrialization, urbanization and rural modernization. Increasing the urban population and reducing the widening gap between cities and rural areas is crucial for China to continue its economic growth.
Over the past 30-plus years since reform and opening-up, China's urbanization rate has risen from 17.9 percent to today's 51.3 percent, said Premier Wen Jiabao at the Summer Davos Forum in September.
By the end of 2011, about 691 million people were living in cities, according to national statistics.
However, urbanization has its problems, such as urban sprawl, the constant construction of industrial parks and environmental pollution.
Rural residents who want to integrate after moving to cities face many difficulties in employment, social security and housing.
Premier Wen said urbanization is still incomplete because many farmers living in urban areas have yet to enjoy equal treatment. Their problems in employment, social security, education, housing and medical care must be tackled, he said.
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