How can land reform be advanced?

First of all, urban construction planning should be carried out through multi-party professional assessment and public evaluation to improve land intensification and utilization efficiency, and to prevent the phenomenon of the chief's personal say-so. At the same time, government reform needs to be pushed forward to change government incentives from a GDP-first government to a service-oriented one.

The second is to open up the land market, letting the market allocate resources in compliance with the land management system, and changing the government's pattern of exclusive land acquisition and exclusive land sales. Promote rural collective construction land and farmers' unused housing and residential land directly into the market.

What can the liberalization of the land market bring? First, the diversification of land supply is conducive to easing the shortage of urban land, curbing the rise of land prices and accelerating urbanization. Secondly, the entry of idle non-cultivated land in the countryside into the market can make effective use of resources, promote the development of sightseeing agriculture, promote the development of leisure resorts and characteristic towns, promote rural prosperity and increase farmers' income.

Third, more remote rural areas, their idle land is difficult to be effectively utilized, because urbanization in these places can not reach. What to do? It can be done by reclaiming idle land as arable land, and through a market-oriented indicator transfer system (such a system needs to be established gradually), to enable farmers in remote areas to gain income through land reuse, and to be able to widely share the benefits brought by urbanization. On the other hand, under the condition of balanced land use, the cities can obtain the land resources they need, which is a win-win situation and a benefit for both sides. Of course, the balance of land use needs to take into account the difference in land quality, not necessarily a simple acre for acre.

The current status quo in rural areas is 146,000 square kilometers, which, again, is the area occupied by villages and townships, excluding arable land. This area is 2.6 times that of the built-up area of the city, and our rural population is now less than that of the towns, but the rural area is still much larger than that of the towns and cities, and there is too much ineffective land occupation. Therefore, in the future, through village improvement, reclamation, and market-oriented index transfer, we should be able to save 50,000 to 60,000 square kilometers of land, which can basically meet the land demand of urbanization in the next two decades, but of course, other infrastructural land will have to be considered separately. If this land is transferred to the market, and we assume that the transfer price is calculated at 100 yuan to 200 yuan per square meter, then it can create a land revenue of 5 trillion to 10 trillion yuan, which will make a huge contribution to the promotion of rural prosperity and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas.

Finally, in a few words, urbanization does not necessarily mean the occupation of large amounts of arable land, nor does it necessarily mean that the countryside will wither away. Promoting market-oriented reform of the land system can optimize the allocation of resources, conserve land resources, avoid the reduction of arable land, create great wealth, and promote the prosperity of the countryside, and only then will it effectively support the future development of urbanization and long-term economic growth.