Land reform should not only explore boldly, but also keep the bottom line

On December 1, a symposium on the reform of rural collective property rights system sponsored by the Development Research Center of the State Council was held in Beijing. The participants pointed out at the meeting that to promote the reform of the rural collective property rights system, especially the reform of the rural land system, we should not only emancipate our minds and explore boldly, but also maintain the bottom line of collective ownership, protect farmers' interests, and be based on the law.

The "decision" of the third and fourth Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee made arrangements for deepening the reform of the rural collective property rights system and innovating the property rights protection system to adapt to the effective realization of the collective economy, and put forward a number of specific reform tasks. The purpose of this research forum is to deeply discuss the deep issues involved in the reform of rural collective property rights system in theory, law and policy, and to provide theoretical support for the top-level design of rural collective property rights system reform and the construction of the rule of law.

During the discussion, the participants held that rural collective ownership is an important part of the public sector of the economy and an important institutional basis of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Since the reform and opening up, many breakthroughs have been made in the reform of rural collective property right system. By the end of 2013, 28000 villages and 50, 000 groups had completed the reform of the rural collective property right system. However, on the whole, there are still some problems and challenges, such as unclear ownership of property rights, lax protection, lack of vitality of development and so on.

Delegates and experts pointed out that the land system is the core issue in the reform of the rural collective property rights system, and it is necessary to focus on solving the problems of the use, transfer, and income distribution of contracted land, collective construction land, and homestead. Only by deepening the reform and finding a more effective way to realize the reform, can we make the rural collective ownership stand and go far. Promoting the reform of the rural collective property right system needs more theoretical and practical innovation.

Responsible comrades of relevant central departments, responsible comrades of various provincial, autonomous regional, and municipal development research centers, agricultural departments, and agricultural offices, representatives of typical areas of rural collective property rights reform, and experts and scholars in the economic and legal fields attended the meeting.