The national development and reform commission strictly controls the withdrawal of counties and districts, and these provincial capitals may be affected.

The fever of withdrawing counties (cities) from districts for five years has been tightened, and some cities that are actively promoting the withdrawal of counties (cities) from districts may be affected.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Key Tasks for the Development of New Urbanization and Urban-Rural Integration in 2022" (hereinafter referred to as "Key Tasks"), which requires prudent and strict control over the transformation of counties (cities) and the expansion of provincial capital cities. If it is really necessary to adjust, it is necessary to strictly follow the procedures, fully demonstrate and carefully optimize the scale structure of urban municipal districts.

Many places plan to set up districts from counties.

After the floodgate was opened on 20 17, many cities actively promoted the withdrawal of counties and the establishment of districts. During the five years from 20 17 to 202 1, 74 cities withdrew counties or changed districts. Especially in recent years, under the strategy of strengthening the province, many provincial capital cities plan to expand their urban areas.

On June 5438+February 3, 20201day, the Proposal of Guiyang Municipal Committee on Formulating the 14th Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development in Guiyang and the Long-term Target in 2035, which was adopted at the 10th meeting of the 10th CPC Guiyang Municipal Committee, proposed that "qingzhen city, xiuwen county, Xifeng and Kaiyang counties should be divided into districts in an orderly manner and set up municipal districts."

The 14th Five-Year Plan of Guiyang did not explicitly mention the withdrawal of counties (cities), but proposed "optimizing administrative divisions and expanding the regional space of central cities". However, the Opinions on Several Policies and Measures to Support the Implementation of the Five-year Action of "Strengthening the Province" formulated by Guizhou Province in 20021proposed to support Guiyang's "one city, three counties" to withdraw counties (cities) and establish municipal districts.

The Action Plan for Building a National Central City (20 17-2035) issued on 20 18 puts forward that priority should be given to completing the transformation of Zhongmou, Xingyang and Xinzheng, speeding up the construction of Xinmi group, Dengfeng group and Gongyi group, and realizing global urbanization as soon as possible.

The Five-year Action Plan for the Integrated Development of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan (202 1-2025) issued by Hunan Province puts forward, "Enhance the driving capacity of the central region of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan. Strive to improve the primacy of Changsha's capital city, support Changsha County to set up Xingsha District, expand urban development space, and accelerate the construction of a national central city. "

The New Urbanization Plan of Fujian Province (202 1-2035) promotes the orderly withdrawal of counties (cities) with mature conditions, supports the transformation of counties (cities) with mature conditions in Fuzhou, and creates a national central city.

The New Urbanization Plan of Gansu Province (202 1-2035) proposes to build a 1 hour commuting economic circle with Lanzhou and Baiyin as the center and Dingxi and Linxia as the hinterland, so as to promote the integrated development of metropolitan areas. We will promote the withdrawal of counties and the establishment of cities (districts) where conditions permit, and constantly optimize the setting of administrative divisions.

Yao Chen, vice chairman and secretary general of China Regional Economics Association, told CBN that many provincial capitals are implementing the strategy of strengthening the province. The method is not intensive growth, but intensive and efficient high-quality development model, but extensive expansion to expand urban development space. Excessive pursuit of urban scale will lead to the contradiction between urban development and the goal of promoting new urbanization.

Yao Chen said that the two plans for the Yellow River Basin and the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Economic Circle issued by the Central Committee last year clearly stated that megacities should slim down and keep fit, and should not make a fuss about scale.

The Outline of Ecological Protection and High-quality Development Planning of the Yellow River Basin proposes to strengthen the constraints of ecological environment and water resources and the control of urban development boundaries, prevent the disorderly expansion of cities, promote slimming and fitness along the megacities along the Yellow River, and reduce production and increase efficiency.

The Outline of the Development Plan for the Twin Cities Economic Circle in Chengdu-Chongqing Region proposes to promote the slimming and fitness of the central cities of megacities. Taking into account the diverse needs of economy, ecology, safety and health, we will promote the functional upgrading of central cities in Chongqing and Chengdu, rationally control the scale, optimize the development pattern, promote the transformation of urban development from extension expansion to connotation promotion, prevent cities from "spreading cakes", actively crack down on "big city diseases", and reasonably control the development intensity and population density.

Policy tightening rather than prohibition

In fact, the policy direction of withdrawing counties from districts began to change at the beginning of 20021.

In March, 20021,Hu Zucai, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the press conference of the State Council Office that megacities should promote "slimming and keeping fit". The epidemic situation in COVID-19 exposed some problems such as high population density and weak ability to resist risks in some megacities. To solve these problems, we should do a good job in three aspects. First, delimit and stick to the boundaries of urban development, and carefully withdraw counties from districts. Second, orderly deconstruct non-core functions, guide the over-concentrated resource elements to gradually and orderly transfer, and reasonably reduce the development intensity and population density of the central city. The third is to develop in conjunction with surrounding small and medium-sized cities and suburban new cities, and cultivate and develop a number of modern metropolitan areas by promoting traffic integration.

The change of policy direction has been reflected in the official information of various places since last year. It is also a topic of widespread concern to withdraw counties from cities and establish districts. Many netizens consult the progress of local planning to withdraw counties and set up districts on platforms such as the People's Daily local leaders' message board. From the official responses to these consultations, we can see the impact of policy changes.

In March, 2002 1 year, the mayor's hotline of Zhengzhou replied to the comments made by netizens about the progress of withdrawing Xinzheng and Xingyang counties, saying that Zhengzhou municipality governs1county, including 5 cities and 6 districts. In recent years, the pace of building Zhengzhou into a national central city has gradually accelerated, and timely, scientific and reasonable administrative division adjustment will more effectively stimulate the development potential of our city. The municipal party committee and municipal government also attach great importance to this work. At present, the adjustment of administrative divisions in Zhengzhou is carried out in an orderly manner in accordance with the requirements of relevant laws and regulations.

However, Zhengzhou's reply is more cautious about the consultation on related topics since then. For example, the reply from 2002/KLOC-0 to 65438+February stated that "the state has strict examination and approval procedures for the adjustment of county-level administrative divisions, which was finally approved by the State Council. If there is new progress in the adjustment of division of labor, relevant information will be announced in a timely manner. "

On February 29th, 2020, the 12th plenary session of the 11th CPC Hefei Municipal Committee adopted the Proposal of the CPC Hefei Municipal Committee on Formulating the 14th Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Target in 2035, proposing to promote the integrated development of Feidong, Feixi, Changfeng and urban areas, and planning to promote county-level reform.

However, the expression of Hefei's "14th Five-Year Plan" issued in 20021was changed to "promote the integrated development of Feidong, Feixi, Changfeng and urban areas and optimize the setting of administrative divisions". 202 1, when many netizens inquired about the progress of the reform in the above three counties and districts on the local leaders' message board of People's Daily, Hefei replied that "Hefei has not yet formulated the relevant administrative division change plan in the proposal."

Yao Chen said that the development of urban areas should be gradual, and the pace should not be too big, and the stalls should not be too open. Now there are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Foshan cities in China. There are no counties, but they are all municipal districts. Therefore, some cities take no counties and cities as their goal, and the steps are too big.

However, Yao Chen also said that it is necessary to strictly follow the actual situation of the city, and it is not impossible to withdraw counties and set up districts, but to strictly control them. Some central and western provinces have many capital cities and counties, the urbanization rate is not high, the proportion of rural areas is still relatively large, and the central city area is relatively small. As a provincial capital city, it plays a leading role in the whole province, and it is still appropriate to adopt the method of withdrawing counties and setting up districts.