Rural Development In China Summary

Mr. Gao at the beginning of his presentation offered a wider perspective on China’s rural development challenges. He pointed out that though the Chinese Government always paid great attention to rural development, Chinastill faces a serious constraint imposed by the fragmentation of cultivated land and the backwardness in agricultural production. Limited and low quality of arable land and weak agricultural infrastructure, dirty rural environment and inadequate public facilities, excessive attention to food production, deteriorated ecological condition, and lack of capital investment in rural economic development are the major constraints for rural areas in China. Thus, he stressed the importance of land consolidation in rural development.

Mr. Gao went on to reframe the importance of land consolidation in making China rich and beautiful. The pattern of land consolidation in China with regional economic development is the condensation of creativity and wisdom, which reflects the understanding of the multi-functional and multi-benefit characteristics of land consolidation and is in line with the need to promote the development of China. Mr. Gao concluded that land consolidation promotes rich and beautiful Chinese rural areas through implementing a new concept of development (Figure: New Development Concept), optimizing land use development, exploring the value of rural land resources, strengthening synergies between land development strategies and rural development, and promoting land engineering and technological

Holger Magel in his presentation pointed out that though regional inequality is worsening within many countries, Bavaria as well as Germany and China put great emphasis on a balanced urban-rural development. The German Constitution (Art. 72 paragraph 2), and especially the Federal Spatial Planning Act (Raumordnungsgesetz) entail the goal of equivalent living conditions in all regions throughout the country. Nevertheless, urban and rural areas, which are developed in Germany separately from each other, are producing a growing gap between prosperous and weak parts of the country. Hence, the challenge is to find criteria and measures for overcoming inequality in terms of hard and soft infrastructure, and aspects of life. Therefore, it is not primarily a question of economy to support the rural areas, but it is first and foremost a question of human rights, dignity and territorial justice. Justice and its impact on the spatial development is a universal and perpetual mandate, which is ultimately based on universally applicable human rights and human dignity. Prof. Magel explained that Territorial Justice has four dimensions (Figure: The four dimensions of territorial justice). Firstly, equal opportunities, which are based on the fact that every newly born child will have a chance to receive school education and much more. Secondly, the justice of distribution, which is about local infrastructure and equipment necessary to live and work (e.g. Internet access). Thirdly,