2 1 century business herald reporter noted that as of 202 1, 1,1,9 of the four first-tier cities and 15 new first-tier cities have entered the "county-free era".
Although the momentum of withdrawing counties from districts (cities) is fierce, many interviewed experts believe that most counties should remain stable. The future urbanization construction is not a drastic adjustment of administrative divisions, but more about using various flexible spaces to promote the flow of production, life and factors across administrative boundaries. This is also consistent with the "urbanization construction with county towns as an important carrier" put forward in the "Proposal of the Central Committee on Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Goals in 2035" (hereinafter referred to as the "14th Five-Year Plan").
Feng Kui, a researcher at China City and Small Town Reform and Development Center, believes that the main way to adjust administrative divisions is "optimization". He believes that China's regional economy and urban economy are undergoing profound changes, so the original administrative divisions must be adjusted. However, due to the extremely complex content of administrative divisions, it can be said that it will affect the whole body, so it is necessary to maintain a high degree of stability.
Don't run a market just to run a market.
At the beginning of 1, Zhengzhou and Hefei, two different meetings proposed to speed up the pace of withdrawing counties (cities) from districts.
Zhengzhou has jurisdiction over 6 districts 1 county and 5 county-level cities. 65438 10/6, the 13th plenary session of the 11th Committee of Zhengzhou City, the production party of China, adopted the Proposal of Zhengzhou Municipal Committee on Formulating the 14th Five-year Plan for Zhengzhou's National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Goal in 2035, which clearly pointed out that it is necessary to speed up the pace of withdrawing counties (cities) from districts and establishing districts.
Hefei has jurisdiction over 4 districts and 4 counties, and manages 1 county-level cities. According to Xin 'an Evening News, the sixth session of the 17th People's Congress of Feidong County, Hefei City, which opened on October 5th, 65438, pointed out that this year Feidong County will study and promote the county reform in an orderly manner.
At the end of 2020, Anhui Province's "14 th Five-Year Plan" proposal has pointed out that "the adjustment of administrative divisions should be steadily promoted according to law, and qualified districts and cities should be encouraged to expand the space of municipal districts and promote the" county to city "in an orderly manner."
In recent years, the pace of setting up cities (districts) from counties has been accelerated. The reporters of 265438+20th Century Business Herald found that among the four first-tier cities and 15 new first-tier cities, nine cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Tianjin, Nanjing, Dongguan and Foshan have entered the "county-free era".
Why does the central city focus on "no county" in its jurisdiction? A number of interviewed experts told the 2 1 Century Business Herald that the purpose of setting up a city (district) by a county is to give the local area stronger planning rights and development rights.
"This gives some counties a way to rise in the process of urbanization. For example, when the total economic output of a county develops to a certain level and the economic structure develops from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, the removal of the county and the establishment of a city (district) will make the jurisdiction of the local government higher and more conducive to promoting future economic development. " Ma Qingbin, a researcher at China International Economic Exchange Center, pointed out.
However, it does not mean that a county should set up a city for the sake of setting up a city.
"In the future, the establishment of cities (districts) by counties is a small part, and most counties should remain stable." Feng Kui, a researcher at China City and Small Town Reform and Development Center, stressed in an interview with 2 1 Century Business Herald that it is really necessary to expand the scale of cultivating central cities in the central and western regions, but it is more important to improve the quality and energy level, and at the same time promote the formation of an efficient governance system between central cities and small and medium-sized cities. It is impossible for us to eliminate counties in a short time in order to cultivate central cities.
He believes that whether a county or county-level city establishes a city (district) is related to the conditions, functions and development stages of the county or county-level city. Counties have the advantages of counties, and cities (districts) have the competitiveness of cities (districts). We must never say that it is good to set up a city (district) from a county.
How to optimize the setting of administrative divisions
Regarding the importance of county towns in urbanization, the "14th Five-Year Plan" proposal emphasizes that the county towns should be taken as an important carrier to promote urbanization, and proposes to optimize the setting of administrative divisions, give play to the leading role of central cities and urban agglomerations, and build a modern metropolitan area.
There are more than 20 urban agglomerations in China, some of which are facing the problem of imperfect urban system. The standards of individual core cities are very high, but you can't see decent medium-sized cities and high-quality small cities scattered around the core cities. One feasible way is to cultivate and form more small and medium-sized cities; The second way is to speed up the cultivation of modern county towns and improve the radiation driving force of county towns for rural revitalization.
It is worth noting that on the one hand, it is the trend of "no county" in the central city jurisdiction of metropolitan area, on the other hand, it is the contraction of some cities. Statistics show that from 2007 to 20 16, 80 cities in China experienced "contraction". The "20 19 Key Tasks of New Urbanization Construction" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission pointed out that shrinking small and medium-sized cities should lose weight and keep fit, change the habitual incremental planning thinking, strictly control the increment, revitalize the stock, and guide the population and public resources to concentrate in urban areas.
In the construction of central cities, in recent years, some cities such as Jinan and Hefei have expanded the jurisdiction of central cities by bringing some surrounding cities into their own jurisdiction.
Ming Lu, a professor at Antai school of economics and management, Shanghai Jiaotong University, believes that there are two main ways to optimize the setting of administrative divisions. In some areas, by breaking the boundaries of administrative jurisdiction, a larger administrative region is established to promote coordinated development and integration; In other areas, a stronger coordination mechanism across administrative boundaries is formed by diluting administrative boundaries. Among them, different regions will choose appropriate methods according to local conditions.
Many experts told the reporter of 265438+20th Century Business Herald that to promote the development of urbanization by optimizing the way of setting administrative divisions is not a drastic adjustment of administrative divisions, but that the future urbanization construction will be more through urban agglomerations or metropolitan areas, so that production, life and factors will flow across administrative boundaries.
Let enterprises and people freely choose cities.
The Yangtze River Delta has become one of the most densely populated and economically developed areas in the domestic metropolitan area. Shanghai metropolitan area, Nanjing metropolitan area and Hangzhou metropolitan area. The cities they cover span two or even three provinces.
Adjacent metropolitan areas overlap with each other. How to balance competition and cooperation in new urbanization construction?
Minglu believes that this needs to be decided by the market. The government's traditional mode of attracting investment is nothing more than taking measures such as reducing prices and reducing taxes and fees, which will form vicious competition between different cities and lead to the convergence of industrial structure.
Minglu said that in the future, relatively unified standards should be formulated in terms of land transfer and taxation within urban agglomerations. The government should also do a good job in the interconnection of infrastructure and equalization of public services, and promote the free flow of factors such as population. Then, under the background of marketization, enterprises and labor force choose the most suitable cities for development, thus forming differentiated population scale and industrial structure among different cities.
Feng Kui also stressed that in this process, not only urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas should coordinate and cooperate, but also urban agglomerations cannot operate in a closed loop. The core of competition and cooperation is to promote the flow of factors, including labor, capital, science and technology, management and data, among which data interconnection is the difficulty. This depends not only on the administrative coordination of the central government, but also on various coordination and cooperation mechanisms.
It should also be noted that the development of the surrounding areas of big cities is also a hard nut to crack, and the cross-regional setting of metropolitan areas has also become an exploration to promote the development of the surrounding areas of big cities.
Taking Shenzhen as an example, Feng Kui believes that it has both the cooperation and coordination around Shenzhen metropolitan area and the regional cooperation mode of Shenzhen-Shantou Cooperation Zone, both of which are worth trying in the future. The key to all kinds of cooperation between the central city of metropolitan area and the surrounding cities is that the government's various plans should push the boat with the current, not force it to drink water.