Revitalizing China's Countryside Through Securing Rural Land Rights

Revitalizing China's Countryside Through Securing Rural Land Rights

December 21, 2006

Project Signed to Address Problems Surrounding Land Rights,
Governance and 
Public Services in Rural China


    BEIJING, Dec. 20 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- A project that
aims to revitalize 
rural China by addressing problems surrounding property
rights, governance 
and the provision of public services was signed today in
Beijing between 
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Chinese
government. 

    Entitled "Revitalizing Rural China through Land
Policy Reform and 
Innovation in Rural Governance and Public Service
Delivery," the 4-year 
project is designed to propose policy, legislative and
institutional reforms 
to support the Chinese government in its on-going
initiative to re-focus on 
rural areas and build a "new socialist
countryside" for the 800 million 
population living in rural China.

    "Creating a new countryside will require solving a
complex set of 
interrelated and difficult problems," said Khalid
Malik, UN Resident 
Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China, at
the signing 
ceremony. "Securing rural land rights, stronger
bargaining power for farmers 
and the sufficient compensation for land use have been
identified as key to 
rural reform in China." 

    He also stressed that adequate and equal provision of
public services, 
improved, effective, and representative local governments
and an influential 
civil society are all goals outlined in the 11th five-year
plan.  These goals 
will be instrumental to achieving the government's vision
of a harmonious 
well-off Xiaokang society and meet the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). 

    "As the pressure for urban expansion mounts around
the country, stories 
abound of farmers being forced off their land with little
compensation and no 
means of recourse," Malik said.  "The priority
for rural reform is to connect 
the land with the rights of farmers to use, transfer and
reap the benefits of 
it." 

    Through policy research and pilot in implementation,
the US$5 million 
project aims to clarify rural land property rights and
establish clear, 
equitable and efficient mechanisms to uphold those rights. 
These methods 
will further be used to identify obstacles to improving
local governance in 
rural areas, providing public goods and services and
protecting farmers' 
rights. Knowledge sharing, policy debates and dialogues
will be used with an 
aim to spread knowledge of best practices.

    Developing rural areas, where economic development has
lagged behind that 
of China's booming cities, has been highlighted as a
priority by the Chinese 
government.  The policy recommendations aim to enhance
growth, efficiency and 
equity in rural areas and bridge rural-urban inequalities.


    This initiative is a joint effort between the UNDP, the
Ministry of Land 
Resources (MLR), China Institute of Reform and Development
(CIRD), and the 
China International Center for Economic and Technical
Exchanges (CICETE) 
under the Ministry of Commerce.

    UNDP fosters human development to empower women and men
to build better 
lives in China.  As the UN's development network, UNDP
draws on a world of 
experience to assist China in developing its own solutions
to the country's 
development challenges.  Through partnerships and
innovation, UNDP works to 
achieve the Millennium Development Goals and an equitable
Xiao Kang society 
by reducing poverty, strengthening the rule of law,
promoting environmental 
sustainability, and fighting HIV/AIDS.
http://www.undp.org.cn




    For more information, please contact: 

     Ms. Zhang Wei, 
     Communications Officer, 
     UNDP China
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]




SOURCE  United Nations Development Programme