context: The state has attached great significance to 'rural industries integrated development’, viewing it as equally important as its three most prominent rural innovative practices since 1949. This document proposes a special statistical system that is under development, which would measure added value from rural industries integrated development. Rural industrial development is to be the internal power of rural revitalisation.
State Council released 'Guiding opinions on rural industry revitalisation', comprehensively planning rural industries development and clarifying the space’s characteristics and development approaches, said Yu Xinrong 余欣荣, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) vice minister at a press conference.
The Guiding Opinions name six rural industries
- modern farming and breeding
- ag products processing and circulation
- rural specialties
- rural tourism
- rural new services
- rural information
The six industries almost cover all rural industries, and their interaction and integration are critical to revitalising the rural economy, says Zhu Qizhen 朱启臻 China Agricultural University professor.
The Opinions also offer a policy framework to address capital, land and talent bottlenecks for industrial development, consolidating, extending and further specifying existing policies, said Yu. Concerning capital input, the Guiding opinions call for
- optimising fiscal input mechanisms
- increasing the income share from ag and rural development land use right transactions
- encouraging locals to set up rural industry development funds
- supporting tech innovation
- innovating rural financial services
- guiding county-level financial organisations to deposit funds into local ag and rural projects
- allowing rural contracted farmland rights, ag facilities and ag machinery with clear property rights to be used as collateral for loans
- strengthening financing guarantees for rural industry projects
- supporting local government bond issuing for public welfare projects
- supporting qualified ag companies’ listing
- encouraging private capital inflows to rural industries that prolong industry chains and boost farmer employment
Yu noted that rural industrial integrated development is the fourth major innovative practice for farmers, following
- household contract responsibility system (HCRS)
- village and township enterprises (VTE)
- agricultural industrialisation
Yu indicated the state is working on a system that would measure added value from three industries’ integrated development, which will be a metric for evaluating ag high-quality development.