Project Signed to Address Problems Surrounding Land Rights, Governance and
Public Services in Rural China
BEIJING, Dec. 20 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- A project that aims to revitalize
rural China by addressing problems surrounding property rights, governance
and the provision of public services was signed today in Beijing between
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Chinese government.
Entitled "Revitalizing Rural China through Land Policy Reform and
Innovation in Rural Governance and Public Service Delivery," the 4-year
project is designed to propose policy, legislative and institutional reforms
to support the Chinese government in its on-going initiative to re-focus on
rural areas and build a "new socialist countryside" for the 800 million
population living in rural China.
"Creating a new countryside will require solving a complex set of
interrelated and difficult problems," said Khalid Malik, UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China, at the signing
ceremony. "Securing rural land rights, stronger bargaining power for farmers
and the sufficient compensation for land use have been identified as key to
rural reform in China."
He also stressed that adequate and equal provision of public services,
improved, effective, and representative local governments and an influential
civil society are all goals outlined in the 11th five-year plan. These goals
will be instrumental to achieving the government's vision of a harmonious
well-off Xiaokang society and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"As the pressure for urban expansion mounts around the country, stories
abound of farmers being forced off their land with little compensation and no
means of recourse," Malik said. "The priority for rural reform is to connect
the land with the rights of farmers to use, transfer and reap the benefits of
it."
Through policy research and pilot in implementation, the US$5 million
project aims to clarify rural land property rights and establish clear,
equitable and efficient mechanisms to uphold those rights. These methods
will further be used to identify obstacles to improving local governance in
rural areas, providing public goods and services and protecting farmers'
rights. Knowledge sharing, policy debates and dialogues will be used with an
aim to spread knowledge of best practices.
Developing rural areas, where economic development has lagged behind that
of China's booming cities, has been highlighted as a priority by the Chinese
government. The policy recommendations aim to enhance growth, efficiency and
equity in rural areas and bridge rural-urban inequalities.
This initiative is a joint effort between the UNDP, the Ministry of Land
Resources (MLR), China Institute of Reform and Development (CIRD), and the
China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE)
under the Ministry of Commerce.
UNDP fosters human development to empower women and men to build better
lives in China. As the UN's development network, UNDP draws on a world of
experience to assist China in developing its own solutions to the country's
development challenges. Through partnerships and innovation, UNDP works to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals and an equitable Xiao Kang society
by reducing poverty, strengthening the rule of law, promoting environmental
sustainability, and fighting HIV/AIDS. http://www.undp.org.cn
