A Study On Current Situations And Strategies For Building New Rural Communities In Ouhai District Of Wenzhou

It has become a major concern of the people and the Party as well as the government to accelerate the coordinated development of urban and rural areas and deepen the urbanization so as to enhance the construction of communities and community service system. In its17th National Congress, the Communist Party of China reiterated that it would improve self-governance among urban and rural residents and build new-type and well-managed communities featuring civility and harmony. Wenzhou Municipality is one of the second group of cities which were designated as the pilot regions for comprehensive rural reform. Ouhai District, the cradle of the so-called "Wenzhou Mode", enjoys a highly sophisticated market economy but lags far behind in terms of urbanization. It still lacks urbanized areas though it is one of the three Districts of Wenzhou Municipality. Therefore, the construction of rural communities not only is a need for Ouhai’s administration system and its economic maturity, but also a logical choice for its socio-economic development.This paper analyzes the background and the drive for the construction of new-type rural communities in Ouhai District, discusses the construction of rural communities both at home and abroad and, above all, relates them to the current situation in Ouhai. In this District,85rural communities have been established through conversion, merging and combination, which have reached all corners of its sub-districts and towns. To deal with the present situation, this paper adopts methods such as literature review, social surveys, community investigations, analysis of governmental reports and interviews to examine the problems underlying the construction of rural communities in Ouhai District and puts forward a series of optimization strategies.The problems arising from the construction of rural communities include:the unclear division of administrative power, the lack of overall planning, the lack of fund for construction, the inadequacy of self-governance, the incompetence of administrators for rural communities, the issue of collective assets, etc. The mechanism, which is temporarily incomplete, has brought about new social administration problems, increased the social administration cost and complicated the procedures for the residents. In response to the existent problems, this paper puts forward a series of optimization strategies:the advocacy of scientific community planning, the enhancement of self-governance, the strengthening of building political power and training employees at the grass-level, the deepening of collective asset ownership reform, and the innovation of fund raising for community building. These strategies shall suit the community construction to present socio-economy of Ouhai, boost the coordinated development of urban and rural development, and quicken the pace of its urbanization.