1. Policy background and main content In 2015, MoA carried out the conclusions and spirits of the third, fourth and fifth plenary sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the No. 1 document. The rural collective property system reform was carried out centering on reviewing and organizing the implementation of pilot programs for rural joint-stock system that allows farmers' collective property entitlement, starting rural collective property rights reform and some other issues. The reform has brought some prominent effects, which laid a solid foundation for further exploring the effective realization for rural collective property right, innovating rural collective economy mechanism, fostering and improving the basic operation system and protecting farmers’ collective property rights.
1) Reviewed and replied on the implementation plans for reforming rural collective property rights from local governments. In accordance with the requirements of Pilot Practice of Actively Developing Farmers' Joint Stock Cooperatives that Entitle Farmers' Collective Property Reform, conscientiously researched and reviewed on the pilot implementation plans submitted by the local governments, sought for suggestions from the office of the Central Rural Work Leadership Group, the State Forestry Administration and other 9 ministries and experts, communicated with pilot counties (cities and districts) in time and further revised the implementation plan. In early May, after the approval from the State Council, 29 counties (cities and districts), including Daxing district in Beijing, were officially determined as the places to conduct pilot programs by MoA, the office of the Central Rural Work Leadership Group and the State Forestry Administration.
2) Conscientiously conducted joint-stock reform of rural collective property right pilot programs. First was to intensify trainings and publicity, and host special training sessions to systematically interpret the reform tasks and related policies. Edited and printed Tutorials for Pilot Programs for Joint-Stock Reform of Rural Collective Property Right, and explain major issues in the reform with plain language. Second was to enhance communication. Briefings of Joint-Stock Reform of Rural Collective Property Right was printed to communicate and explain major reform-related policies of the central government, and introduce the typical practices local governments conducted to improve the reform, new situations, problems and solutions and suggestions from the pilot programs. These briefings enhanced the communication between different pilot programs. Third was to improve supervision and examination, and implement investigations and examinations. On top of self-examination among the counties (cities and districts), MoA worked with the State Forestry Administration, and visited 10 provinces (municipalities) such as Beijing, Shandong and Henan to supervise, investigate and acquire comprehensive knowledge about the pilot programs’ progress, objectively evaluate the programs, identify the problems in time and provide targeted suggestions and solutions to ensure a successfully pilot reform.
3) Researched on joint-stock reform of rural collective property right. The 2015 No.l document detailed "guiding opinions on a steady, smooth joint-stock reform of rural collective property right." In accordance with the requirements from the central government, MoA worked with related ministries, and actively researched on the problems in joint-stock reform of rural collective property right. Cooperated with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council and the Development Research Center of the State Council, and visited Shanghai, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Guangdong, and collected the suggestions from local governments on important issues such as membership status confirmation, stock setup and management and related supportive policies. Conferences were held to invite experts with theoretical and legal background and communicate and discuss about important theoretical and legal issues with major local leaders. Forums were also held to discuss the reform of rural property right, to communicate lessons and experiences learnt from the reform, and to report on reform progress.
2. Policy implementation and performance evaluation
1) The joint-stock reform of rural collective right achieved initial success. The pilot programs proceeded from the reality, followed the guidance and requirements of the implementation plan, actively and steadily promoted the pilot tasks, and have achieved initial success. The pilot counties (cities and districts) started identification of membership status of collective business entities and verification of assets, acquired a clear knowledge of the structure, distribution and inventory of different rural collective properties. Some 9 pilot areas including Zixing city and Wenjiang district in Chengdu city even published guiding opinions on membership status identification. Pilot counties (cities and districts) all started collective, operative assets joint-stock reforms focusing on quantifying properties, setting up joint stock and joint-stock management and allocation of income, and established rural economic cooperatives. On top of that, members’ property rights and benefit rights were realized through registration of stock rights and formulating income allocation policies. Some more developed areas researched on and experimented on paid membership withdraw and inheritance right. In Minhang district of Shanghai, after a fundamental survey on 8 towns, 31 reform villages and 633 members, allocated some of the villages to try paid withdraw from stock based on position of duty, stock right assigning and educated urban youth shared stock. Pilot programs approved for experimenting on mortgage rights and security rights have also started preparation for their work. Wuzhong district in Suzhou city had already authorized Zhujiang village bank to determine 1 to 2 villages to try mortgage right and security right pilot programs. Daxing district worked with Beijing Huaxia village bank to explore the pilot mortgage rights and security rights pilot programs in Huangcun Township.
2) Thoughts on rural collective property rights gradually became clear. After a few years of research on rural collective property rights reform, the thoughts have become clearer, and some thoughts have turned into policies. As the No. 1 document of 2015 and 2016 identified: focusing on the confirmation, registration and issuance on the contracted management rights of rural land and the expansion of provincial pilot program when it comes to resource properties such as land; focusing on exploring effective, collective and standardized management system to improve public service capacity when it comes to non-business assets; for business assets, the focus is on the clarification of property right, and the quantification of the asset stock so that the asset stock is shared among members of the collective economic cooperatives, and to develop different forms of joint-stock cooperatives, and to improve the management, supervision and income allocation of rural collective "three resources." The goal is to basically complete by 2020 the confirmation, registration and issuance of rural collective resource assets such as land, business assets stock quantification and sharing, and improve standardized management system for non-business assets.
3) Steady progresses were seen in rural collective assets joint-stock cooperative system reforms. As the pilot program for rural collective assets joint-stock rights was deepened, and the thoughts on reform policies were consolidated, the reforms were progressing steadily, and local governments were promoting the reforms actively. Until the end of 2015, some 59 000 villages and 71 000 village groups nationwide finished the joint-stock cooperative system reform, which took up 9.7 percent and 1.4 percent of the total, respectively. Some 742.91 billion yuan of assets were quantified on village and village group levels, and resulted in an accumulated 265.72 billion yuan of stock share, among which 41.11 billion yuan was collected in 2015. Some 99 percent of villages in Zhejiang and about one-third of villages in Jiangsu provinces have finished asset capital verification and stock quantification of business assets.
