Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and State Council, Several Opinions on Intensifying the Co-ordination of Urban and Rural Development and Further Strengthening the Basis for Agricultural and Rural Development

Issued: December 31 2009

Main contents: The Opinions aim to:

- deepen the reform of the household registration system, accelerate the policy of relaxing the criteria for settling in small and medium cities, small towns and especially county and central towns, and promote the settlement of qualified migrant population from rural areas in towns and the entitlement, of the said population, to the same rights as local urban residents;

- encourage qualified cities to include migrant workers from rural areas who have stable occupation and have resided in the city for certain years in the urban housing security system;

- accelerate the centralisation of rural population in small towns;

- improve and accelerate the ancillary policies for developing small towns such as financial and tax, and investment and financing policies, and formulate an annual land use plan that supports the development of small and medium cities and small towns; and

- if any rural homestead or land conserved from village re-arrangement has been converted into land for construction use, use such land mainly for centralised development of industries to accommodate the nearby relocation for employment of farmers (Article 23).