A couple of weeks ago, 129 senior villagers in Bao'an District of southeast China's Shenzhen City received their first monthly pension, each one with 813 yuan (US$98) or more. Just the same as urban retirees, they now have a retirement certificate, a social security card and a pension deposit book. With the issue of Transitional Measures on Basic Pension Insurance of Urbanized People in Shenzhen's Bao'an and Longgang Districts on December 8, 2003, 152,000 villagers of former agricultural household registration in these two districts have joined in the social security system.

It is reported that by the end of 2004, the existing and also the final 270,000 peasants in Shenzhen's Bao'an and Longgang districts will all complete their identity change from rural to urban residents. Shenzhen will become China's first metropolis to fully say goodbye to rural areas.

"There are mainly two channels in developed countries to realize urbanization. One is the gradual transfer of a rural population to large or super-large cities with the development of industrialization. Compared with some cities in China, the total economic volume and city construction level in Bao'an and Longgang are no way inferior," said Huang Liman, the Party chief of Shenzhen.

According to her, 11 years ago, the total agricultural output value of the two districts accounted for 10 percent of the GDP. The rural laboring population accounted for 10 percent of the total population. However now, the total agricultural output value only accounts for 2 percent of GDP. All farm work has been carried out by people hired from other places. All this indicates that currently the urbanization conditions for the two districts is fully mature.

In 1992, Shenzhen extended the range of special economic zone to include Bao'an County. The county was accordingly divided into two districts of Bao'an and Longgang. Nowadays, the outlook of the two districts is nothing different from the city. The economic resources of most families come from commerce, house renting and profit sharing from the stocks of rural collective enterprises.

But the organizational system of towns under these two districts remained, therefore the management system kept both models of city and rural areas. This has lead to many problems in city planning, construction and management and seriously restricts the development of the two districts, dragging the pace of modernization of Shenzhen in some extent.

It is estimated that there are over 2,000 villages in Shenzhen, of which 200 more are in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. There are a total of 300,000 private buildings in the special economic zone, which have seriously affected the development of Shenzhen and the city outlook. According to relative departments, due to the existence of villages in the urban area, a series of social problems such as traffic jams and environmental pollution as well as complex social public security usually bothering only cities with long history have occurred in the young Shenzhen City of 20-year history.

Huang Liman used "tumor" to describe the existence of villages in the city. Policy-makers have realized the reconstruction of villages in the city is not only the reconstruction of buildings, but also the transformation of living modes and lifestyles. The municipal authorities have nailed down 10 work focuses and policies covering administrative management, development planning, land resources, city planning, city management, household registration, family planning, social security, employment, education and Party building. Changes of these 10 aspects will be first piloted in Bao'an and Longgang and then comprehensively extended to other districts.

Currently urbanization pilot work in these two regions has entered a crucial period.

Land is the most complex and crucial problem in the work of urbanization. The land ownership of the two districts will be returned to the state after urbanization according to relative regulations. However, taking the real situation into consideration, the municipal government is deliberating to provide appropriate compensation to collective economic organizations during the alternation of the land right.

The community residents' committees set up after the dismissal of administrative villages will break away from former collective economic organizations of villages. The wages of work staff and office expenses in the residents' committee will be shouldered by the committee according to the property they hold, and district finance will be responsible for the deficient part. Office land over 150 square meters and land for community service no less than 200 square meters will be taken out from the property of former villagers' committees. The property belongs to the community residents' committee. Currently 78 percent of administrative villages and 88 percent of village teams in these two districts have completed reconstruction of joint-stock cooperation systems.

Previously, the ratio of rural insurance premiums paid by villagers in these two regions was very low with low return. Villagers received the pension every 10 years with each one only 10.8 yuan (US$1.3) every month. The transitional measures regulate that the ratio of pension insurance premium is 14 percent, of it the join-stock company pays 9 percent while the individual pays 5 percent.

It is reported that according to the lowest standard, a 55-year-old woman villager who pays 71 yuan (US$8.5) insurance premium a month, can receive 830-yuan (US$100) pension every month after she is qualified for receiving conditions. According to the regulations, the basic pension insurance treatment of villagers includes pension, funeral subsidies, and pensions paid in one lump sum to sustain the life of their lineal relatives and medical insurance premium equal to the city employees. Once they are ill, they can enjoy the highest reimbursement of 312,000 yuan (US$37,695) just like employees in city enterprises.

The municipal and district governments will allocate 660 million yuan (US$79.7 million) within five years to pay social security fees for over 70,000 former villagers who have reached retirement age and paid the premium regularly but haven't reached the number of years required.

(China.org.cn by Wang Qian and Daragh Moller, January 7, 2004)