A Study Of Collective Land Circulation In Dongguan

Due to the severe shortage of urban land resources and the increasing urban-rural development gap, rural collective construction land transference is intensively urged, and is considered as one of crucial objectives of the land management reformation by the Chinese central government.Dongguan, contiguous to major cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau, being a pioneer ever since the reform and open-up policy, has continuous urging demands of developable land resources. The practice of renting or selling collective construction lands for industrial uses has been a major financial motivation in Dongguan. Nevertheless, multiple problems have also been caused due to the immatureness of related laws and policies, which calls for academic attentions.This paper, with key principles related to collective construction land transference stated as theoretical foundation, discussed how collective construction land was transferred in China, and more specifically, how it was done in Dongguan. Research shows that there are many dilemmas in the collective construction land transferring in Dongguan, such as the slow pace, dealing with historical issues, lack of efficiency in leveraging the land, illegal usage of land and lack of robust social security system. The root causes were inadequacies of legal system, wrong administration structure of the Dongguan government, short-sightedness of the rural authorities and insufficient law enforcement.To further explore how collective construction land should be circulated in Dongguan, the paper first summarized leading practices in China. Such practices include Nanhai Mode in which land was turned into equities, Suzhou mode where equities were raised from farmers to form a corporation, Chongqing mode where “land coupons” were being exchanged, Huzhou mode where land was rented, Licun mode where farmers were jointed-venture, Tangjiangling mode where farmers were offered public housing, and Guangfo mode where three legacy(old towns, old factories, old villages) where transformed. All these cases could provide valuable insights into how collective construction land should be transferred in Dongguan.Furthermore, the paper proposed several suggestions of collective construction land transference in Dongguan, such as more in-depth background research, narrowing the scope of land expropriation, enhancing how collective construction land could be further leveraged, improving authority coordination of land development, robust planning process, creative interest sharing mechanism and strengthening of land trading market and social security system.