In 2014, following the logic of "spending money on building systems," governments carried on reforms, pushed forward the "Case-by-Case Approval System," financial rewards and "Beautiful Countryside" construction pilot program, built rural comprehensive reform demonstration pilots and state-owned farms social function reform pilots, and initiated the construction of demonstration town pilots. Rural comprehensive reform was deepened and yielded progress, which facilitated institutional innovation of the urban-rural integration system.
1. Efforts were made to keep enhancing and deepening reforms of township institutions, rural compulsory education, township financial managing system, and collective woodland ownership, which laid the institutional foundation for rural development
(1) Reform of township institutions continued to be deepened and consolidated. Based on the results of township institutions' reform, agricultural authorities strengthened the guiding role, and kept up with new situations and problems emerged from the process of reform. They summarized regional experience, and promoted effective services such as one-stop service and proxy service. Based on a document released by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on regional governmental function transform and institution reform, the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform actively promoted the transform and reform by directing local governments to streamline institutions, adjusting mechanisms and functions related to key fields, and integrating management and service resources. Local governments' advantages were made full use of, and their supervision and management functions for rural markets were reinforced. Governments promoted the construction of administrative management reform pilots in economically developed townships, enhanced work guidance, and summarized experience, in order to further improve reform policies and measures.
(2) The reform of rural compulsory education was deepened. Efforts were made to improve the financial security system for rural compulsory education, continue to enforce "two exemptions and one subsidy" policy, increase the public fund per student to 60 yuan, and support building maintenance and reconstruction in rural middle schools and elementary schools. According to statistics, in 2014, the central government allocated 87.89 billion yuan for reforming rural compulsory education. About 110 million students nationwide were exempted from tuition fees and textbook costs, free dictionaries were given to first-grade students in elementary schools, and 12.4 million boarding school students from low-income families in Midwest-China were subsidized. Some 31 billion yuan was spent on improving school conditions in poverty areas, and the standardization of the schools. The nutrition improvement program was carried forward, and subsidy standard was increased. The central government arranged 17.14 billion yuan for the program, covering 32 million rural students. Some 6.8 billion yuan was invested in training teachers for rural compulsory education.
(3) The reform of financial management of counties and townships was deepened. According to the requirements of budget management reform, finances below provincial level was improved, and the financial transfer system was enhanced, which stimulated the initiative of local governments. Pilot programs, in which county finances were put under the direct control of provincial authorities, and village finances were put under country authorities were advanced steadily. The protection mechanism for basic financial resources at country level was adjusted and improved, which balanced finances below the provincial level, and enhanced local governments' ability to provide basic public services. From 2010 to 2014, the central government allocated 552.8 billion yuan for subsidizing the county level financial security mechanism. The guidance and management of township financial management were enhanced, and the budget security mechanism for rural organizations was improved.
(4) The reform of forestry collective ownership was carried out smoothly. Follow-up tasks of determining property rights of collective woodland, and contracting to households were conscientiously done. Efforts were taken to improve household contract management system, enhance the conciliation of woodland right disputes, promote the innovation of forest industry shareholding system, and improve social service system. Woodland rights transfer developed healthily, environment-friendly industries expanded, financial and insurance systems were improved, the productivity of the forest industry was facilitated, and forest farmers' income increased.
2. Financial rewards and subsidies for village-level public welfare and "Beautiful Countryside" pilots were carried forward, and new rural public welfare mechanism was constructed In 2014, policies, standard management and financial support, grassroots participation were enhanced for these practices. On the basis of adopting democratic procedure and respecting farmers, opinions, governments strongly supported rural public welfare such as the construction of roads and water conservancy. Rural living conditions and democracy at the basic level were improved. According to statistics, in 2014, some 65.42 billion yuan was used for the "Case-by-Case Approval System" rewards and subsidies, which stimulate more than 110 billion yuan to be invested in village-level public welfare, covering 2,853 counties (cities, or districts) and 215,000 administrative villages; 310,000 village-level public welfare projects were conducted, among which 143 200 were road construction projects, accounting for 46.2 percent, and 53,500 water conservancy projects, accounting for 17.3 percent. Meanwhile, in "Beautiful Countryside" pilot areas, funding was increased for road construction, public hygiene services, electricity supply, environment protection and living condition improvement. According to statistics, in 2014, 6,782 villages nationwide were included into the pilot areas. They received a total of 12.181 billion yuan of funding, among which, 2.945 billion yuan was from the central finance, and 7.899 billion yuan was from regional finances. More than 13 million farmers benefited from the funding, and beautiful villages with favorable conditions for living, business and tourism were developing.
3. Demonstration pilot program on rural comprehensive reform was carried out steadily, and approaches for breaking down rural institutional barriers were explored In 2014, the central government allocated 3 billion yuan as transfer funding for rural comprehensive reform, supporting 17 provinces such as Hebei and Shanxi. Regional governments explored viable systems for public service management and maintenance, rural collective economy, rural ownership system reform and agricultural social services, in order to gather experience for nationwide reform. Rural public service management and maintenance pilots were created in 11 provinces such as Hebei and Liaoning, with emphases on rural infrastructure management and maintenance, rural public hygiene services and other public services, in order to develop long-term rural public service systems. This pilot program and the "Case-by-Case Approval System" financial policies were combined together to fill the blank spots of rural public service policies, and improve the relationship between authorities and farmers, which consolidated government administration at the basic level. Regional governments in provinces such as Fujian, Henan, Hunan, Guangxi Autonomous Region, Yunnan and Xinjiang Autonomous Region also carried out the pilot program.
4. Pilot programs on the social function reform of state-owned farms were conducted step by step, which established a preliminary system for the development of state-owned farms The program was initiated in 2012, with eight provinces (or autonomous regions) selected as pilot areas, such as Inner Mongolia and Liaoning. The program set a goal of gradually transferring state-owned farms' social functions to local governments in three years. In 2013, the pilot areas were extended to 17 provinces. In 2014, the central government allocated 1.5 billion yuan to continue supporting the transfer of state-owned farms' social functions and related personnel, in order to facilitate the development of state-owned farm system and reduce farm workers' burdens. So far, the reform has been carried out smoothly in the first batch of eight provinces. State-owned farms' social functions have been transferring to local governments, related personnel have been transferring to new institutions, and the burdens of state-owned farms and farm workers were greatly alleviated.
5. The construction of pilot demonstration townships was initiated successfully, and urban-rural systems of reciprocally beneficial interaction were explored In the process of new-type urbanization, townships face the worst conditions of infrastructures and funding. Accelerating township development is the key to extending modern infrastructure and public services to rural areas, constructing new socialist countryside, and integrating urban-rural development. Following the guidance of the central urbanization work conference in 2014, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly released a document to formally initiate the construction of pilot demonstration townships. Pilot areas were encouraged to innovate systems of urban-rural integration, rural public service and township finance, and improve business environment. Viable systems of townships' sustainable development should be explored in the pilot program to set examples for nationwide township development. In 2014, the central government allocated 1.9 billion yuan to support 90 pilot demonstration townships for a three-year term.
