VI. Coordination of Urban and Rural Development

In accordance with the general requirements for coordinated planning, industrial distribution, infrastructure construction, and public services of urban and rural areas, the Pearl River Delta will vigorously push forward the construction of socialist new countryside, improve the functions of cities, and take the lead in forming a new pattern of coordinated urban and rural development.

1. Enhance Administration of Urban and Rural Planning and Construction

The region will substantially integrate the urban and rural planning and distribution, construct demonstration modern urban and rural areas in line with the economic development levels, and build inhabitable towns and villages with South China features. A planning system will be established which is based on the major functional region planning and coordinates the economic and social development planning, land use planning, and urban and rural planning. The functional areas will be rationally zoned, and each will be positioned for specific functions. The condition where urban and rural residential areas mingle with industrial and agricultural areas will be changed, and the spatial layout for urban and rural construction will be optimized. To meet the requirement for coordinated development, the region will integrate the urban and rural planning, enhance the construction of supporting facilities, and improve the living environment of the rural areas. The region will renovate the villages inside a city according to the local conditions, dismantle the deserted villages and consolidate the tiny ones, and speed up the construction of new types of urban and rural communities. The region will strengthen the coordinated planning of the urban and rural spaces for non-agricultural use, optimize the industrial structure of the rural areas, and integrate the industrial development of urban-rural areas. The region will explore the new system for coordinating the planning, construction, and administration of urban and rural areas, and uplift the levels of urban and rural planning, construction, and administration. and the region will promote the openness, transparency, and mass participation degree of plan formulation, and advance the legalization of plan compilation and implementation.

2. Enhance Construction of Rural Infrastructure

The region will elevate the level of coordinated construction of urban and rural infrastructures, and strive to intensify the construction of rural infrastructure. The region will make great efforts in constructing the safe drinking water projects in rural areas, and raise the assurance rate and quality and safety levels of water supply in rural areas; and lift the construction grades and standards for rural roads, improve the mechanism for rural road administration and network of rural roads, quicken the pace of realizing public transportation in rural areas, and fulfill shaping a convenient and fast public passenger transport system which covers both cities and countryside by 2020. The construction of rural infrastructure for modern logistics will be accelerated, the expansion of urban trading companies into rural areas will be encouraged, and the system of urban-rural business chains will be improved. The region will push forward the construction of a clean and economical energy system for countryside, further complete the coordinated urban-rural power supply network, spread renewable energy technologies in rural areas, such as methane, biomass clean fuel, and solar energy, and make clean and economical energy available to most rural residents. Sanitation projects will be implemented in rural areas. The construction of rural waste and wastewater centralized treatment and disposal systems will be quickened; the rural waste and human and animal excrements will be treated so as to make them harmless; and the hygienic conditions and living environment will be improved.

3. Facilitate Urban and Rural Equality of Basic Public Services

The educational, health, cultural, and social security resources will be distributed between the urban and rural areas in an integral and balanced way, and the social undertaking development will focus on the rural areas. The assurance of rural public services with government finance will be elevated to a higher level; the construction of the system of coordinated public services for urban and rural areas will be quickened; the public service system oriented to permanent residents will be completed; and the region will take the lead in realizing the equality of basic public services. The mechanism guaranteeing the expenditures for rural compulsory education will be improved; stricter thresholds will be established for rural teaching positions, and the quitting mechanism for rural teachers will be introduced, so as to allow higher-quality teaching personnel for rural education and bring balanced development of rural and urban compulsory education. And the countryside-oriented vocational education will be intensified. The construction of rural medical infrastructure will be strengthened; the overall amelioration of the rural conditions for healthcare and prevention and treatment of diseases will be pursued; the new type of rural medical cooperative system will be improved; and efforts will be made to construct the coordinated public health service system, medical service system, medicare system, and drug supply security system of urban and rural areas. The protection of the rights and interests of migrant workers will be strengthened, and they will gradually enjoy equal rights with urban citizens regarding public services such as school access for their children and public health. Urban and rural employment will be integrated, and the establishment of the coordinated human resource market and fair and competitive employment system for both areas will be accelerated. The region will speed up the construction of coordinated social security system in urban and rural areas and in accordance with the current level of social and economic development. The region will improve the rural pension system, and do a substantially good work regarding the job training and social security of those whose lands have been expropriated. The social welfare and charity programs in rural area will be energetically developed; and the system of ensuring minimum living standards which dictates relatively coordinated treatment but different standards for urban and rural residents will be established; with the minimum living standards and the levels of subsidies being gradually raised. The policies on supporting the totally dependent households and aiding the disaster victims and orphans in rural areas will be improved; and the overall social welfare level will be promoted. The construction of public cultural facilities in rural areas will be vigorously advanced, and, on the basis of the cultural facilities of communities and villages, the public cultural service system of cities and countryside will be improved. The construction of rural grassroots organizations will be consolidated, and the coordinated administration of the urban and rural societies will be lifted to a higher level.

4. Establish New Mechanism Providing Urban Assistance to Rural Areas and Industrial Subsidies to Agriculture

A series of fiscal and financial policies to assist countryside and agriculture will be instituted and improved, and the mechanism of one-on-one urban assistance to rural areas will be improved, so as to establish a new mechanism that provides urban assistance to rural areas and industrial subsidies to agriculture. The mechanism of supporting countryside and agriculture with government finance will be improved, and the input from a given level of government finance for this purpose will grow faster than the growth of its regular revenues. The structure of the use of the government investment, the incomes from land transfer, and the incomes newly earned from the tax on farmland occupation will be adjusted in order to allow a dramatically larger share for the "farmers, countryside, and agriculture". The development of new types of countryside-oriented financial institutions (organizations) and regional financial institutions mainly to serve rural areas will be accelerated; the construction of the rural credit guarantee mechanisms and the rural credit system will be advanced; the coverage of policy-based agricultural insurance will be expanded; and the insurance for rice, pigs, fishing, and forests will be encouraged. By 2020, a rural financial system that has sufficient capital, safe operation, and sound functions will be established. The one-on-one urban assistance to rural education, medicine, health, and culture will be increased, and the demonstrative influence of cities and industries on the countryside and agriculture will be strengthened.