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The government work report proposes to cultivate and develop the county economy, make up for the shortcomings in infrastructure and public services, and make the county an important carrier of new urbanization.
In this regard, the representative committee members suggested how to make the county a warmer "home" for migrant workers.
Nanjing Kuaijie Housekeeping Service Co., Ltd., where Representative Gao Huarui works, has 3,060 employees registered on the Ministry of Commerce’s Housekeeping Service Credit Information Platform, the vast majority of whom are migrant workers.
In the past two years, more and more colleagues have bought houses and settled in the city, and more of their homes are in the districts and counties surrounding Nanjing, Jiangsu.
This year’s government work report proposes to actively promote new urbanization.
Cultivate and develop the county economy, make up for the shortcomings in infrastructure and public services, and make the county an important carrier of new urbanization.
When interpreting the government work report, Huang Shouhong, head of the government work report drafting group and director of the State Council Research Office, said that last year, the urbanization rate of my country's permanent population was 66.2%, and there is still a lot of room for development and improvement in my country's new urbanization.
He said that this year, we should put the promotion of urbanization of agricultural transfer population in a prominent position.
Delegates and committee members participating in the National Two Sessions actively offered suggestions on how to make the county a warmer "home" for migrant workers.
Small county, big dream
After working hard for many years, it is the dream of many migrant workers to buy a house and settle down in the city, with a stable and secure life.
A practical reason why Gao Huarui, on behalf of his colleagues, choose to buy houses in the surrounding districts and counties of Nanjing is that the cost of living in Nanjing is higher.
Compared with Nanjing's house price of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per square meter, the house price in surrounding districts and counties is about one-third.
The average income is about four to five thousand yuan a month, so county towns are a more feasible option.
Even among couriers who are regarded as “highly paid” by everyone, very few can buy a house and settle down in a big city.
Representative Wang Yong, branch manager of Hubei SF Express Co., Ltd., who has been working in the express delivery industry since 2014, told reporters that the high turnover rate of couriers has always been a pain point in the industry. He left after a while," said representative Wang Yong.
In addition to the uncertainty of housing prices and the "next stop", children's education is also an important consideration for everyone when choosing where to settle down.
At present, the settlement restrictions in cities with a permanent population of less than 3 million in urban areas across the country have been basically lifted. This means that if you settle in a county town, your children can enjoy the same educational resources as citizens.
Representative Liu Ting, director of the Health Care Business Marketing Department of Panasonic Home Appliances (China) Co., Ltd., said that compared with big cities, the cost of educating and caring for children in small and medium-sized cities represented by counties is lower, which has become an important factor in attracting migrant workers to settle down.
In fact, up to now, 19 urban agglomerations including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Chengdu and Chongqing have hosted more than 75% of the country's population and have become the main form of my country's new urbanization.
At the same time, the cultivation of modern metropolitan areas is accelerated, and the development of large, medium and small cities is more coordinated.
Small county, big future
In the past, one of the advantages of big cities in attracting migrant workers was more employment opportunities.
Nowadays, with the integration of urban and rural areas and coordinated regional development, small counties also contain great hope. The development of county economies has allowed everyone to see more development possibilities.
Representative Liang Qianjuan, general manager of Longshang Manor Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd., lives in Hui County, Longnan, Gansu Province, with a permanent population of 189,200 and an urban population of 85,000.
When migrant workers settle down in the county, in addition to enjoying the benefits of their children attending school nearby, they can also enjoy service policies such as employment and unemployment registration, registration assistance for people with employment difficulties, and placement in public welfare positions. Everyone is highly motivated to settle in the city.
In 2013, Representative Liang Qianjuan, who was working in Guangdong, resigned and returned to her hometown to devote herself to e-commerce entrepreneurship. The following year, she founded her own online store "Longshang Manor".
Representative Liang Qianjuan sells olive oil, walnuts and other agricultural products from her hometown across the country, helping more than 300 local farmers increase their income and become rich.
Under her leadership, many local people returned to their hometowns to start businesses.
The local government has taken advantage of the situation and focused on cultivating the e-commerce industry.
At present, there are 1,592 e-commerce entities of various types in Hui County, with sales exceeding 600 million yuan in 2023 alone.
"Organically combine the promotion of new urbanization with the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas." Representative Liang Qianjuan believes that better utilizing the short video live broadcast ecosystem to absorb large-scale employment can create new job opportunities for ordinary people, and short videos and live broadcasts should be encouraged Ecologically absorb large-scale employment.
Representative Zhang Quanshou, secretary of the Party branch of Guaiziyang Village, Shangcai County, Henan Province, also observed new changes in the employment of migrant workers.
Nowadays, those born in the 80s, 90s, and 00s have become the main migrant workers, but they will not choose jobs in electronic factories or construction sites. The number of people working close to home is increasing year by year. Some cities and counties have leading industry industrial parks, and towns and villages have rural revitalization programs. There are small characteristic processing parks in industrial parks and villages, and some people who originally went out to work can find employment while staying at home.
Previously, the relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission stated that they would accelerate the urbanization of agricultural migrant workers and coordinate the reform of the household registration system and the equalization of basic public services in cities and towns.
Promote the coordinated development of new industrialization and urbanization, enhance the industrial and population carrying capacity of towns, especially counties, promote new urbanization with high quality, and provide strong support for Chinese-style modernization.
Small county, big service
To promote new urbanization and make up for the shortcomings of public services, the representatives brought many suggestions.
Representative Cai Jiming, a professor at the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University, believes that it is necessary to speed up the construction and improvement of the urban housing security system for agricultural migrant populations and properly solve their housing problems.
In the context of the shift from the individual migrant work model to the overall family migration model, since housing is still connected with urban public services such as medical care and education, proper resolution of the housing problem will also contribute to the labor force reproduction of the agricultural migrant population and the labor skills of their children. The improvement, etc., is conducive to the improvement of labor quality and labor efficiency, and can also solve the dilemma of "labor shortage" and "difficulty in recruiting workers" on the other hand.
Representative Yang Juan, deputy chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, suggested that the first generation of returning migrant workers without pension insurance be allowed to apply for insurance, and the local government would provide certain subsidies based on their own financial resources; those who have been insured for less than 15 years and are willing to make up the payment Migrant workers will be provided with the convenience of making up payments according to the policy; first-generation migrant workers who have lost the ability to work and have no one to take care of them will be included in the scope of normal social assistance.
Having worked at the grassroots level for a long time, Representative Yuan Shu, Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Hebin Street, Nanming District, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, has a real sense of the needs of migrant workers to settle down in cities.
She believes that in order to make up for the shortcomings of public services and support the employment and entrepreneurship of migrant workers in cities, relevant government functional departments should "support and give them a ride" for the migrant workers who have been cultivated for employment and entrepreneurship, and formulate a series of practical assistance measure.
For example, relevant functional departments at the county and district levels have established one-stop services for entrepreneurs to apply for certificates and open accounts; tailor-made a number of support policies to provide entrepreneurs with small-amount loan credit guarantees.
In response to the urgent needs and worries of migrant workers and their children's schooling, governments at all levels must strengthen cooperation and data linkage with education departments, use data means to solve their children's worries about schooling, and create an entrepreneurial environment for them to live and work in peace and contentment.
Liu Shangxi, President of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, suggested that in terms of skills improvement, new career development, practical training, job internships and other opportunities should be opened directly to all employment groups without distinction, so as to promote the development of low-skilled workers and new employment forms. The organic fit helps them maintain their ability to choose careers again.
(This newspaper, Beijing, March 7)
Deng Qifan