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5 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
draft details how the government “will support agricultural to be manifested in the following ways:
insurance with favorable nancing and taxation policies
and will specify the duties of relevant departments”, in [Budget expenditure] should rst support development
addition to outlining “the principles for insurance companies of the agriculture and rural area, and xed-asset invest-
handling agricultural insurance and the rules for operations in ment rst be channeled into agricultural-related infra-
accordance with risk analyses, business actions and business structure and projects in relation to rural livelihood.
results”28
More subsidies should be channeled to increase the
Notable Policy Activity output of grain, potato, highland barley and peanut, as
well as the purchase of agricultural machinery, it said.
Better Land Use Rights for Farmers
New reforms announced in November 2013 allow “rural e government would implement more policies for
purchasing and stockpiling major agricultural prod-
collectively-owned land, a legacy of the planned economy, to ucts, including corn, soybean and oilseeds, to stabilize
be transferred, rented or pooled” but will “stop short of giving prices of major farm produce.
commercial rms free rein to buy land and will focus instead
on creating bigger family farms,” Reuters reports.29 More e orts will be made to strengthen nancial
services including micro-credit loans and insurance
Another condition of the purchase of collectively-owned service in rural areas, according to the document.30
land is that “ rms are only allowed to do modern farming and
livestock breeding, not real estate or tourism.”29 e policy release reportedly also proposes increased fo-
cus on addressing issues arising from a “new generation of
e move is reportedly part of the government’s e ort “to migrant workers” (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) and
persuade families to stay in the countryside by raising incomes, methods by which to stimulate the construction or refurbish-
and the large-scale family farm has been identi ed as the most ment of rural residential properties.30
e ective method; each [of the country’s 877,000] family-
owned farms earned 184,700 yuan ($30,300) in 2012, about Later in 2010, a Vice Minister of Agriculture “noted that
ten times higher than the average rural household income.29 development of rural tourism [for example “farmstay” pro-
grams in which comparatively-wealthy tourists temporarily
e World Bank reports that “despite massive o -farm reside in rural settings] was a strategic move to balance urban
migration, rural population growth has meant that cultivated and rural development and play multiple roles.” Such tourism
land per agricultural laborer has remained fairly constant, in- promotion, said Mr. Gao, “not only help[s] to accelerate the
creasing only from 0.35 hectares in 1978 to 0.41 in 2008. strategic restructuring of agricultural and rural areas and pro-
Average Chinese farm holdings are well under 1 hectare, far mote employment of farmers and increase of their income as
lower than the global average; the average farm in the United well as development of modern agriculture and a new coun-
States is 300 times bigger than in China. “41 tryside, but also play[s] important roles in strengthening the
interaction between urban and rural areas… [and coordinates
Arguing against greater consolidation in the short-term, the] development of rural and urban areas.”31
“researchers have said it was not suitable to develop farms on
the scale of those in the United States, given China’s huge For all these e orts, however, signi cant gains appear elu-
population and the need to nd work for 450 million farmers sive. Su Hainan of the China Association for Labour Studies
still likely to live in the countryside by 2030.”29 (a government think-tank) notes that urban incomes remain
three- to four times higher than rural incomes.32Accordingly,
Ongoing Attempts to Close the Income Gap Between Urban the 12th Five-Year Plan outlines three objectives concerning
and Rural Workers narrowing the gap:
e rst o cial announcement of 2010, the opinion titled 1. steadily increase grain output (grain production of
“CPC Central Committee and State Council on the increas- China should realize a capacity increase of 50 million
ing intensity of urban and rural development” (“中共中央国 tons over the next five years, however, it will be a
务院关于加大统筹城乡发展力度进”), placed emphasis on formidable task);
the reform and modernization of the rural economy—a large
part of which is unsurprisingly constituted by the agricultural 2. implement deeper reform to provide equal public services
sector. (services include infrastructure and maintenance, basic
social welfare, maintaining legal order, and providing
According to Xinhua, the document states that in addition
to attempting to stimulate consumption in rural areas, the
government will also “continue boosting nancial input into
the agriculture and rural areas,” an increase in nancial input
100
draft details how the government “will support agricultural to be manifested in the following ways:
insurance with favorable nancing and taxation policies
and will specify the duties of relevant departments”, in [Budget expenditure] should rst support development
addition to outlining “the principles for insurance companies of the agriculture and rural area, and xed-asset invest-
handling agricultural insurance and the rules for operations in ment rst be channeled into agricultural-related infra-
accordance with risk analyses, business actions and business structure and projects in relation to rural livelihood.
results”28
More subsidies should be channeled to increase the
Notable Policy Activity output of grain, potato, highland barley and peanut, as
well as the purchase of agricultural machinery, it said.
Better Land Use Rights for Farmers
New reforms announced in November 2013 allow “rural e government would implement more policies for
purchasing and stockpiling major agricultural prod-
collectively-owned land, a legacy of the planned economy, to ucts, including corn, soybean and oilseeds, to stabilize
be transferred, rented or pooled” but will “stop short of giving prices of major farm produce.
commercial rms free rein to buy land and will focus instead
on creating bigger family farms,” Reuters reports.29 More e orts will be made to strengthen nancial
services including micro-credit loans and insurance
Another condition of the purchase of collectively-owned service in rural areas, according to the document.30
land is that “ rms are only allowed to do modern farming and
livestock breeding, not real estate or tourism.”29 e policy release reportedly also proposes increased fo-
cus on addressing issues arising from a “new generation of
e move is reportedly part of the government’s e ort “to migrant workers” (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) and
persuade families to stay in the countryside by raising incomes, methods by which to stimulate the construction or refurbish-
and the large-scale family farm has been identi ed as the most ment of rural residential properties.30
e ective method; each [of the country’s 877,000] family-
owned farms earned 184,700 yuan ($30,300) in 2012, about Later in 2010, a Vice Minister of Agriculture “noted that
ten times higher than the average rural household income.29 development of rural tourism [for example “farmstay” pro-
grams in which comparatively-wealthy tourists temporarily
e World Bank reports that “despite massive o -farm reside in rural settings] was a strategic move to balance urban
migration, rural population growth has meant that cultivated and rural development and play multiple roles.” Such tourism
land per agricultural laborer has remained fairly constant, in- promotion, said Mr. Gao, “not only help[s] to accelerate the
creasing only from 0.35 hectares in 1978 to 0.41 in 2008. strategic restructuring of agricultural and rural areas and pro-
Average Chinese farm holdings are well under 1 hectare, far mote employment of farmers and increase of their income as
lower than the global average; the average farm in the United well as development of modern agriculture and a new coun-
States is 300 times bigger than in China. “41 tryside, but also play[s] important roles in strengthening the
interaction between urban and rural areas… [and coordinates
Arguing against greater consolidation in the short-term, the] development of rural and urban areas.”31
“researchers have said it was not suitable to develop farms on
the scale of those in the United States, given China’s huge For all these e orts, however, signi cant gains appear elu-
population and the need to nd work for 450 million farmers sive. Su Hainan of the China Association for Labour Studies
still likely to live in the countryside by 2030.”29 (a government think-tank) notes that urban incomes remain
three- to four times higher than rural incomes.32Accordingly,
Ongoing Attempts to Close the Income Gap Between Urban the 12th Five-Year Plan outlines three objectives concerning
and Rural Workers narrowing the gap:
e rst o cial announcement of 2010, the opinion titled 1. steadily increase grain output (grain production of
“CPC Central Committee and State Council on the increas- China should realize a capacity increase of 50 million
ing intensity of urban and rural development” (“中共中央国 tons over the next five years, however, it will be a
务院关于加大统筹城乡发展力度进”), placed emphasis on formidable task);
the reform and modernization of the rural economy—a large
part of which is unsurprisingly constituted by the agricultural 2. implement deeper reform to provide equal public services
sector. (services include infrastructure and maintenance, basic
social welfare, maintaining legal order, and providing
According to Xinhua, the document states that in addition
to attempting to stimulate consumption in rural areas, the
government will also “continue boosting nancial input into
the agriculture and rural areas,” an increase in nancial input
100
