Strange ways to remove counties and establish cities

Among the hundreds of counties and districts that Southern Weekend reporters have contacted, Shenmu is one of the few "high-profile elements." "Our county has complete materials for its application to withdraw from the county and establish a city, and all indicators meet the national standards. We are 100% confident in this." Gao Zengli, a staff member of the Shenmu County Party Committee Office, said.

The confidence of this top 100 county in the country is by no means empty talk. Southern Weekend reporters learned that according to the country's major indicators of population, economy, and infrastructure construction, Shenmu has reached and significantly exceeded the standards. The total GDP is 25.1 times the national standard, and the per capita regional GDP is 39.8 times. In 2012, the urbanization rate reached 63%, and the county population exceeded 400,000. In Lei Zhengxi’s words, “Shenmu is no longer a county in the traditional sense.”

The excellent economic data makes the Shenmu organization's work of removing counties and establishing cities particularly impressive.

At the National "Two Sessions" in 2011, a representative of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress submitted a proposal for the removal of counties and establishment of cities from Shenmu and other counties. The county party committee and county government also put it on the important agenda that year, and won the Support from provincial and municipal governments. The following year, the Shaanxi Provincial Government submitted a request to the State Council for the removal of Shenmu from the county and the establishment of a city. In the pending approval stage.

But Liping County, Guizhou Province, which is thousands of miles away from the sacred tree, is still thinking hard and preparing silently.

Liping County is one of the 592 poverty-stricken counties in the country. Compared with the current national standards for the removal of counties and establishment of cities, among the three major and nine minor hard condition indicators of economy, population, and industrial output value, Liping County in 2011 There are still 4 small data items that do not meet national standards, including important indicators such as the non-agricultural population in the county government’s residence and the industrial output value at or above the township level.

Even so, Liping is still eager to win his "status." Just on the road under the jurisdiction of Liping County, Southern Weekend reporters saw a banner saying "Actively promoting the removal of counties and establishing cities is conducive to Liping's economic development."

Mo Xinhua is the deputy director of the Party History Research Office of the Qiandongnan Prefecture Committee. On April 22, 2013, he told Southern Weekend reporters on the phone that the removal of counties and establishment of cities first appeared in the "Ten Years" of Qiandongnan Prefecture. In the Second Five-Year Plan, it is hoped that Liping, Zhenyuan, Tianzhu, and Rongjiang counties will be able to remove counties and establish cities within the planning period. To this end, the state committee and the state government conducted special research in 2012 to find policy breakthroughs.

As the first author of the "Research Report on Accelerating the Work of Removing County and Establishing a City in Liping" (hereinafter referred to as the Liping Research Report), Mo Xinhua said that this topic is one of the major topics of the state committee in 2012 , the results have been submitted to the state committee and state government.

The research report cleverly combines the special conditions in the current standards: "places with special political, military, diplomatic and other needs", the conditions for establishing a city can be appropriately relaxed, pointing out the direction for Liping to withdraw from the county and establish a city. . According to reports, Liping is "the starting point of the great turning point of the Chinese revolution". The Red Army's long march into the first county in Guizhou and the old revolutionary base of China has a significant red cultural label. "We must make full use of this special political and military background and strive for the approval department to relax the conditions for city establishment." This is stated in the research report, which was signed and approved by the main leaders of the state party committee.

Li Ping also set up a special leading group for the removal of counties and establishment of cities, and held a county-wide mobilization meeting. With 2014 as the completion time limit, the countdown progressed, and even organized a team to have the same background and obtain approval for the removal of counties and establishment of cities. Jinggangshan City to learn from the experience.

What is the difference between one word and one word?

From "county" to "city", there is only one word difference. Why do hundreds of counties flock to each other?

In January 2013, Fuyu in Jilin and Maitreya in Yunnan became the lucky ones and changed from counties to county-level cities. "Many county heads believe that the establishment of a city will improve the image of the local investment attraction." A person from the Yunnan Civil Affairs Department said that when applying for Maitreya, what they value more is that this important industrial county in Honghe Prefecture can give full play to its location advantages and become a central and Yunnan province. The juncture of the Nancheng urban agglomeration plays an important role in undertaking the industrial layout of the Central Yunnan Economic Circle. At the same time, it also has the advantage of being declared as an "ethnic minority area".

After all, there are only a few lucky ones who have the advantage of macro layout, and Shenmu, for example, pays more attention to the administrative authority of the "city". Lei Zhengxi said that the traditional management model and power are obviously not suitable for the development of Shenmu, and the economic and social management fields are often stretched. "The current system of Shenmu can be vividly compared to 'a small horse-drawn cart and a big foot covered with small shoes.' Therefore, it is very necessary and urgent to remove Shenmu from a county and establish a city, break the constraints of the original system and mechanism, and promote the transformation and upgrading of Shenmu .

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For Liping County, the removal of counties and establishment of cities is also of great significance. As stated in the Liping research report, the removal of counties and establishment of cities is a practical need to speed up the development of ethnic minority areas, and is more conducive to obtaining superior authority. Policies, funds, projects and other aspects have given Liping greater support to promote the leap-forward development of Liping Dong Township.

Obviously, the "citizen dreams" of Shenmu and Liping belong to two different paths. Some people even hope to change their status for better development.

In the opinion of Song Yingchang, a researcher at the Institute of Urban Development and Environment of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who has long been concerned about regional development issues, although the word "county" is different from "city". However, the treatment is very different, especially in the positioning of the higher-level government. Counties generally focus on agriculture, while cities focus on non-agricultural industries such as industry and commerce or service industries.

Secondly, it is reflected in the setting of government departments. In terms of establishment and establishment, counties generally have more agriculture-related departments, while cities mainly focus on urban economic and urban management departments. Furthermore, there are also differences in transfer payments or special support funds from higher-level governments. Counties generally can only use them in agriculture-related fields. The city can use it in city-related areas. Also, the city can levy and use urban maintenance and construction tax, but the county cannot.

Song Yingchang also believes that it has an impact on the city's investment promotion activities. It has a better image and can provide more preferential policies in terms of industrial and commercial development and urban construction, which is conducive to attracting more external funds, but the county is in a marginalized position in attracting investment.

Remove the county and change it. City, when will the gate be opened?

According to an interview with Southern Weekend reporter, the civil affairs departments of many counties are not clear about when the policy of removing counties and establishing cities will be opened. Southern Weekend reporter tried to contact the Ministry of Civil Affairs for an interview, but as of now. As of press time, no reply has been received. An official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs revealed that Fuyu in Jilin and Maitreya in Yunnan are just special cases, and there is currently no policy trend in the country to open the floodgates.

However, according to public reports in the media, the National Development and Reform Commission is taking the lead. The "National Plan for Promoting the Healthy Development of Urbanization" will be released soon. This plan reveals a new sign that some provinces and cities will carry out larger-scale construction of small and medium-sized cities, and related actions such as the removal of counties and the establishment of cities (districts) will be more and more frequent. The situation is getting denser.

Before the policy was officially unfrozen, the fever was already high in various places. “Everything is ready, all we need is the east wind. "Lei Zhengxi, Secretary of the Shenmu County Party Committee, described the situation like this.

Not only Shenmu and Liping, but also other places are speeding up. To this end, Shilin County, Yunnan Province established a leading group office for the coordination of county removal and city establishment, and also decided to hold a " Hearing on the "Report on the Abolition of Counties and Establishment of Municipalities in Shilin Yi Autonomous County (Draft for Comments)"

Regardless of whether it is thawed or not, the national standards for the establishment of cities that were officially implemented 20 years ago and have since been revised are already outdated. , it is difficult to guide the practice of city establishment. Song Yingchang told Southern Weekend reporters that the original standards have fallen behind. For example, economic indicators were very high from the perspective of the time, but they are very low today. Many counties can achieve them and cannot reflect the city. The level of economic agglomeration requires the Ministry of Civil Affairs to organize relevant experts to study the new "county to city" standards.

At the 13th meeting of the 11th National People's Congress Standing Committee held in February 2010, Officials have officially proposed that our country will actively study and improve the standards for establishing county-level cities, and appropriately convert counties (towns) whose population, economy, finance, taxation, and urban construction have reached a certain scale and standards into cities.

Mo Xinhua told Southern Weekend reporters that the draft of the national standards for the removal of counties and cities has been issued and is still in the stage of soliciting opinions.

However, in the view of Song Yingchang and officials from the civil affairs systems of several provinces, the withdrawal is not allowed to resume. The transformation of counties into cities is an objective requirement for economic and social development and has an unstoppable trend. In the context of the country's vigorous promotion of new urbanization, the State Council should launch a new round of county-to-city policies as soon as possible, and after doing enough homework before starting. , "everything should be done", but we should resolutely prevent the recurrence of "chaotic reform fever" (Source: Southern Weekend)