Mechanism And Policies For Coordinating Economic And Social Development Between Urban And Rural Areas: The Case Of Shandong Province

Coordinating urban and rural development and promoting urban and rural integration is an important step toward breaking down the dual urban-rural structure and perfecting the socialist market economy system. Coordinating urban and rural development means changing the traditional ideas and practice of favoring cities over the countryside and administering urban and rural areas separately, and realizing all-round development of both urban and rural areas by taking industries and agriculture, cities and the countryside, and urban residents and farmers as a wholer espectively, and through unified planning and concerted efforts. This is a new but fundamental approach to solving China's farmer and agriculture issue. China's reform in the past 26 years has been market-oriented and aimed at revitalizing the microeconomic entities, however the current economic problems facing China is more and more related to the macroeconomic system. The farmer and agriculture issue not only originates in the development strategy of favoring cities over the countryside and the resulting dual urban-rural structure, it is also due to the malfunction of government when resource allocation is performed mainly by the market. Coordinating urban and rural development and promoting urban and rural integration will change the status quo, and provide farmers with fair national treatment, complete property right and equal development opportunities, thus establish a new economic and social system under which cities and the countryside are equally treated.This article discusses the mechanism and policies of coordinating urban and rural development. Part One analyzes the disparity of infrastructure construction between urban and rural areas and puts forward four recommendations. First, expand investment channels for rural infrastructure construction. Second, improve ruralinfrastructure construction planning and fund management. Third, increase investment in irrigation system and relievefarmers from reliance on the nature. Fourth, start rural infrastructure construction with daily life facilities. Part Two reviews the history and status quo of resources allocation in urban and rural areas, and offers policy recommends on the allocation of capital and labor resources. In terms of capital resources, the government should increase investment in the rural areas, the scale of bank loans should be maintained, foreign investment in agricultural sector should be encouraged. In terms of labor resources, labor market should be developed, more channels should be established for relocating rural labor. Part Three analyzes the importance of coordinating the development of urban and rural social security system, and puts forward the following proposals. First, raise awareness and improve administration. Second, establish a multi-layer social security system and increase coverage in the rural area. Third, find more channels for funding rural social security. Fourth, establish an authoritative administrative body for rural social security system. Part Four analyzed urban and rural disparity in the area of culture, education, technology and spiritual civilization and offers proposal respectively. For coordinating the development of culture and education, the article proposes to establish a comprehensive rural education system and encourage the self-education by farmer themselves. For technological development, the article proposes to increase investment in the development of agricultural technologies and improve basic agricultural research and application. For the development of spiritual civilization in rural area, the article proposes to improve leadership by the Party, increase investment and strengthen institutional construction.