[GMDaily] YAN Jinming: make a plan to build beautiful and ecological countryside

Since the reform and opening-up, China has remarkable progress in economic development, but along with the rapid progress made in urbanization, the countryside is unfortunately declining, faced with a series of challenges such as slower economic growth, poverty, pollution, and inefficient use of resources. Therefore, the priority at present is to change the strategy of urban-rural development and activate the driving force of rural development. The Strategy of Rural Rejuvenation proposed at the 19th CPC National Congress marks that our rural development has entered into a new stage.

Whether it is to implement the rural rejuvenation strategy or to realize the objectives of ecological construction, it won’t be easy. This is a comprehensive project, and as high buildings rise from the ground, we need to draw a clear and complete blueprint for rural construction beforehand for greater efficiency.

To formulate rural planning, we must make exploration into the countryside, and designate a suitable development path based on local circumstances. According to Several Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Prioritizing Issues Related to Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers, the guiding role of rural planning must be enhanced. “Be committed to the principle of keep planning prior to construction, focus on land utilization, industry development, settlement construction, residential environment, ecological protection, historical and cultural inheritance, and designate a practical and comprehensive village planning. So how should we build an ecological and livable countryside through rural planning formulation? I believe efforts should be made in aspects of philosophy transformation, objective setting, principle keeping, program improvement and measures refining.

How to transform our philosophy of rural planning? First, we should be committed to green development and environmental as well as ecological protection. We must also base our work on specific problems related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Third, we ought to be committed to comprehensive improvement. For example, we aim for achieving both economic prosperity and pleasant dwelling environment. We need to optimize space utilization in rural area and integrate natural resources.

Regarding the objectives of planning, we should hold that rural area is not merely the opposite of urban area, but the other dwelling space with outstanding characteristics and cultural atmosphere which is distinguished from the cities. On the one hand, infrastructure construction and public services should be developed with modernized standard. On the other hand, rural features should be retained by a rigorous control of constructing space to prevent it from horizontal and vertical expansion.  

We should persist in a pragmatic constructing principle. Rural planning must provide concrete and operable policies and measures as to make it understood by countryside residents. It should also be pragmatic and seek to solve problems such as low energy efficiency and environmental pollution with lower cost and higher efficiency.

As for the program of planning, we should focus on four aspects. First, we must ground the planning on investigation and analysis of actual situation. Second, we must narrate on topics such as economic development, ecological protection and layout optimization in both macro and micro way. Also, specific schemes should be designated, involving tasks fulfillment and formulation of related policies. Last, a safeguard measures are needed such as public participation and expert review.

There are five methods of rural planning: Be qualitative as for clarifying the strategical nature of countryside development. Be functional as for mapping out the space and resources in the village and defining their functions and purposes accordingly. Be quantitative as for calculating the area and scale of different functional spaces. Besides, the location and layout of different functional spaces must be chosen after careful planning. Finally, a timeline should be made so the whole project can proceed in an orderly manner.

Yan Jinming, Executive Dean of National Academy of Development and Strategy, Professor at School of Public Administration, Renmin University of China

The original article was published at here.