Chinanews.com, July 21. The State Council Information Office held a briefing on the 21st to introduce the "Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Reconstruction of Old Urban Communities" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). Huang Yan, deputy minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, pointed out that in 2020, it is planned to start the reconstruction of 39,000 old communities in cities and towns, involving nearly 7 million residents, nearly twice the number in 2019. At the same time, the "Opinions" responded to the problems of facilities, environment, community services, and shortcomings in grassroots social governance that were exposed in old communities during the new crown epidemic.

Data map: Demolition and reconstruction of an old community in Nanning. Photo by Jiang Xuelin

  Huang Yan pointed out that since 2019, all regions and departments have steadily promoted the transformation of old communities in cities and towns. After confirmation and reporting by the people's governments of various provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), in 2019, the nation plans to start the transformation of 19,000 old urban communities, involving 3.6 million households. There are 39,000 planned to start construction this year, involving nearly 7 million households, nearly twice the number in 2019.

  Huang Yan said that recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Reconstruction of Old Communities in Urban Areas." The "Opinions" is the first special document issued by the State Council on the transformation of old communities in cities and towns. It has three characteristics in general:

  First, the entire "Opinions" emphasizes the need to implement high-quality development requirements. It is to take the transformation of old communities as the starting point to improve the quality of urban human settlements, improve the level of urban public services, and solve the problems of uneven and insufficient urban development. The "Opinions" also specifically emphasized the need to combine the transformation of old communities to build a new pattern of grassroots social governance.

  Second, the "Guiding Opinions" highlights system integration, collaboration and efficiency, and embodies distinctive practical characteristics. Beginning in 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has carried out a one-year pilot project in 15 cities with a certain working foundation; on June 19, 2019, the State Council Executive Meeting studied and deployed this work, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development In August, it took two months to work with 21 national departments and units to go to 30 provinces and nearly a hundred cities and counties of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. We investigated more than 200 old communities, sorted out the situation, and found out the needs. Suggest plans. In October 2019, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development guided the two provinces of Shandong and Zhejiang, as well as 8 cities including Shanghai, Qingdao, and Ningbo, in order to address the difficulties and key issues in the transformation of old communities to conduct in-depth pilot explorations on these issues.

  Third, the "Opinions" embodies a strong problem orientation. Judging from the survey and local reports in the past two years, the transformation of old communities in cities and towns involves a wide range of different situations and complex issues. It is a systematic project. To do this job well, there are many difficulties to be solved. For example, it needs local coordination to promote it, and one department cannot do this; it requires multiple channels to raise funds for transformation, and it is not sustainable to rely on government finances; it requires society Power participation and financial support; residents are the main body of the transformation, and it is unreasonable to rely solely on the government to advance from the top down. Residents need to be mobilized to participate in the joint construction; various existing resources need to be integrated and utilized; a long-term management mechanism must be established simultaneously with the transformation. The "Guiding Opinions" this time is actually to transform these practical results into reproducible and extendable policy measures.

  Huang Yan pointed out that the shortcomings of facilities, environment, community services, and grassroots social governance exposed in old communities during the epidemic also responded in the "Opinions."

  At the same time, in order to effectively help local governments solve their difficulties, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and the Ministry of Natural Resources have provided strong policy support in terms of supporting multi-channel financing, accelerating approvals, and integrating existing resources. Judging from the feedback from multiple rounds of solicitation of opinions, the "Opinions" are highly evaluated by all parties, and they believe that it is a good document that can help localities solve practical difficulties.