The reporter recently found in interviews in Anhui, Jiangsu and other places that traditional agricultural counties have sought strategies to "break through" to economically large counties and economically strong counties. In the process of struggling to "break through", agricultural counties have encountered four major dilemmas, such as financial shortage, industrial homogenization competition, destruction of resources and environment, and slow income increase of urban and rural residents.
The four "pumps" of land, industry, subsidy and credit have drained the water badly needed for development, making it difficult for large agricultural counties to break through. Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Jian photo
Lujiang County, Anhui Province, with a population of 1.2 million, is there a jingle? Large grain counties, small industrial counties and poor financial counties have always contributed to the country. Lujiang County's total grain output ranked 64th in China last year, but its financial situation was stretched. In 2005, the county's fiscal revenue reached 243 million yuan, which was turned over to/kloc-0.07 billion yuan. The local government retained1360,000 yuan, and the actual expenditure was 525 million yuan, with a gap of 389 million yuan.
The financial revenue of large agricultural counties mainly comes from industry, which is basically weak, the tax source is single and weak, and the tax revenue is less. According to the tax structure data provided by Lujiang County Finance Bureau, among the 290 million yuan budget revenue this year, the tax revenue mainly includes VAT1.1000 million yuan, corporate income tax 32.6 million yuan, personal income tax 24.4 million yuan, business tax 44 million yuan and consumption tax only 6 million yuan.
The traditional agricultural counties and townships have financial difficulties, financial power and administrative power do not match, and financial expenditure is generally rigid expenditure, which is a typical "meal finance". County-level fiscal disposable income and higher-level fiscal transfer payment in Qingyang County, Anhui Province are * * *10.26 billion yuan, of which10.05 billion yuan is used to pay wages.
The growth rate of fiscal revenue lags far behind the growth rate of expenditure. In 2005, the financial revenue of 30 economically weak towns in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province totaled 654.38+0.8 billion yuan, an increase of 6.654.38+0%. The fiscal expenditure was 265.438 billion yuan, an increase of 22.2%. In 2005, the available financial resources of Zhou Fen Township in Taizhou City were 4,223,200 yuan, of which 4,028,900 yuan was used for teachers' salaries, accounting for 95.4%, and only/kloc-0.943 million yuan was used for the salaries of civil servants and other personnel, which changed from "eating finance" to "begging finance".
In the past, some debts that should have been borne by the state to meet the standards in the Ninth Five-Year Plan and complete taxes and fees made agricultural counties a little breathless. The total debt at the village level in Shucheng County, Anhui Province is 358.8 million yuan, of which the debt at the township level is 65.438+86 million yuan, and the debts arising from achieving education standards, road traffic, small town construction and office buildings are 26 million yuan, 50 million yuan, 20 million yuan and 25 million yuan respectively. By the end of 2005, the total debt of villages and towns in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province was 3.07 billion yuan, with an average debt of 30.97 million yuan.
In recent years, the country has increased rural infrastructure construction, especially rural highway construction. However, due to the need for financial support from local governments, the financial pressure and farmers' burden in traditional agricultural counties have increased. Taking rural highway construction as an example, the state subsidizes 654.38+10,000 yuan per kilometer for the "every village" project, and the insufficient part is supported by local governments, which often transfer the insufficient part to farmers. Chen Rong, member of the Standing Committee of Lujiang County Committee and director of the office, said that the actual cost per kilometer of rural roads in this county is about 200,000 yuan, and the task of "connecting every village" during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period is 1070 kilometers. Lujiang county needs matching funds10.07 billion yuan, which is almost close to the financial resources retained by the county for one year.
"The central government attaches great importance to stabilizing food production and ensuring food security, but it has not invested heavily in agricultural infrastructure construction for decades." Xia, Party Secretary of Nihe Town, Lujiang County, said: "The infrastructure has been improved. It is not a problem to increase the grain yield by 25 to 50 kilograms per mu. Farmers can increase their income by 30% to 50 yuan, which is higher than the various subsidies given to farmers by the state. However, due to lack of funds, local governments are willing to improve agricultural infrastructure. "
Industrial homogenization competition, some industries are hard to see "industrialization"
Generally, the way for traditional agricultural counties to "break through" and become economically powerful counties is to buy land from farmers at low prices, and then the government will invest in the construction of electricity, water, roads and other infrastructure, establish industrial parks, and then attract investment at a lower price to develop industries through attracting investment.
In the agricultural counties that the reporter saw in Anhui and Jiangsu, each county has at least two or three, usually three or four, and at most five or six industrial parks. In most counties and cities in Anhui, local governments generally expropriate land from farmers at the price of 20,000 yuan per mu, and invest 35,000 yuan per mu, of which 1.5 million yuan is submitted to the state for examination and approval, realizing three links and one leveling, and then attracting investment at the price of 35,000 yuan per mu, which shows that "the cost for local governments to develop industries is very high".
"Give the best projects to foreign investors and give the most preferential policies to foreign investors" has become a well-known slogan in agricultural counties. Jiangsu Pei County Party Committee pointed out that cadres who can't attract investment and don't understand the economy are not competent cadres, and those who can't recruit business are incompetent cadres. From the leaders of the four teams in the county to all the members of the leadership teams in the town (district) and ministries, each person undertakes the task of attracting investment from100,000 yuan to 20 million yuan. In mid-2005, the county dismissed the main party and government leaders of two units that had no investment performance since 2004 and reduced their wages by one level; In the first half of 2005, the main party and government leaders of 35 units that did not attract investment performance issued a "warning book".
"Now the projects are crazy and red-eyed." Fan, secretary of the Lujiang County Party Committee, said, "It is not a high-tech project, nor a project with industrial prospects, nor a project that does not conform to the national industrial policy. All localities are rushing to meet the requirements of merchants as much as possible, including many unreasonable requirements, which is particularly prominent in underdeveloped areas of traditional agriculture. " Not long ago, foreign investors wanted to invest in Lujiang Paper Mill and other three projects, and they offered conditions such as zero land price, tax reduction and preferential treatment. Lujiang county is still under study, and the surrounding counties and cities completely agreed to the conditions of merchants regardless of the wind, and quickly "robbed" these three projects with a total investment of more than 200 million yuan.
Due to the hunger for attracting investment, the industrial base of agricultural counties is weak, and the imported industrial projects are mainly building materials, energy and chemicals, textiles and clothing, and light industrial food. The homogenization phenomenon is very serious, and most of them are backward products, backward technologies and processes, and many of them are pollution projects. Some cadres in Peixian told reporters that blindly competing for the number of imported enterprises and the degree of preferential policies, rushing headlong into a hubbub, scattered layout and lack of overall planning, led to a new round of "countryside lighting, villages smoking" in large agricultural counties. It is difficult to give full play to comparative advantages, develop industrial clusters and achieve comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development.
Some agricultural counties have begun to taste the bitter fruit of extensive development. A county-level city in northern Jiangsu was caught in the dilemma of having an industry but not being "industrialized" because of the scattered industrial layout at the beginning. Industry not only failed to effectively promote urbanization and the development of the tertiary industry, but also restricted the sustainable development of industry. The high cost of government management and service, the inefficient allocation of land and other resources, and the great pressure of infrastructure construction such as roads and hydropower are borne by township finance, which makes the county very helpless.
In the interview, the reporter found that, because of their eagerness to "break through" and "catch up", most large agricultural counties not only failed to take agriculture-related industries with intensive labor force, relatively little investment, great industrial relevance and broad market prospects as the breakthrough point of industrialization, but instead used their limited funds to develop industries with large investment that were incompatible with local productivity, thus developing and giving birth to a number of "all-round counties" with short-term industrial "sports warfare"; Each county and city independently develops its economy in its own way; Industrial projects are small and complete, small and scattered, mainly based on "point" economy, with short industrial chain, which lacks the function of gathering and pulling the regional economy.
With the rapid flow of water, the resource advantage has become a "resource trap"
It is a common practice in large agricultural counties to mine resources when there is water flowing fast.
Policy makers in some large agricultural counties admit that they are not ignorant of the consequences of pursuing short-term interests and ignoring resources and environmental protection. The problem is that the contradiction between the pressure of economic growth indicators and the long-term benefits of environmental resources during their term of office, coupled with the drive of the concept of "catching up", forced them to pursue the growth of county economy at all costs. Some large agricultural counties are taking the old road of "catching up and surpassing strategy" at the expense of the environment in developed areas.
Fengyang County, which is economically backward, has made great efforts to develop the cement and glass industries in recent years, relying on the advantages of local limestone, Shi Ying and other resources. The reporter saw that there are dozens of cement enterprises and quartz sand processing enterprises, large and small, in a place more than ten kilometers west of Fengyang County. These enterprises provide a large amount of tax revenue for the local area, but almost crazy indiscriminate mining and excavation have destroyed the local environment. "In many places, the construction capacity has not improved, and the destructive capacity has improved." Fan, secretary of the Lujiang County Party Committee, said: "In the current competition, whoever can build a factory is a hero. Now many leaders can't wait to finish 100. "
The urgency of "breakthrough" makes agricultural counties ignore the pollution and destruction of the project to the environment. In June this year, the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Department and the Provincial Development and Reform Commission inspection team went to Xuzhou, Huai 'an, Yancheng, Lianyungang and Suqian to conduct on-site inspections on 57 projects in six categories, including chemical industry, printing and dyeing, tanning, electroplating, brewing and papermaking, which have been approved since the implementation of the EIA Law. It was found that some counties and districts suddenly approved projects with serious pollution before the implementation of the "new environmental access conditions". For example, since September 2003 1, a county has built six new chemical projects, three of which were approved in a hurry. It is also common to reduce the level of "environmental assessment" of unqualified projects in five counties and districts of northern Jiangsu.
In Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, some factories that can't survive in the local area because of serious pollution are also looking for a way out. These enterprises often hit it off with the local government in northern Jiangsu. It is understood that from 1994 to the end of 2005, Jiangsu transferred 6,770 projects from southern Jiangsu to five cities in northern Jiangsu, with a total investment of187.5 billion yuan and actually attracted 76.6 billion yuan. On the transfer list, companies with heavy pollution such as chemical industry, printing and dyeing, and metal electroplating account for a large proportion.
At the end of August this year, the investigation organized by the People's Congress of Anhui Province found that in some places, "you buy tickets when you get on the bus, or even you don't buy tickets when you get on the bus", and the environmental protection departments of some cities and counties have gone beyond the level of approval, which should have been approved by the state or the province. Some places even put forward that "small projects will be approved when they arrive, and large projects will be completed within three days".
Agricultural counties used to have beautiful scenery and fresh air, but now the mountains are blown to pieces, the green water is black and smelly, and the air is dirty. In an interview with the industrial park in Jinhu County, a major agricultural county in Jiangsu Province, the reporter found that many enterprises that settled here a few years ago were "five small" projects explicitly prohibited by the state. The local groundwater pollution was serious, and crop deaths and human and animal poisoning accidents occurred from time to time. Local farmers have lost tens of thousands of acres of land on which to live, and the county finance has a fiscal deficit of nearly 100 million yuan due to blind development. A cadre in Jinhu County told reporters with anxiety that natural resources such as land and ecology are the advantages of large agricultural counties, but they pay too much attention to resource development. If there is land, occupy it, and if there is mine, mine it. If it is not good, it will become a "resource trap".
The agricultural foundation is weak and the income growth of urban and rural residents is slow.
There is a 6000-mu wheat field in Shengcun Village, Shengquan Township, Xiaoxian County, Anhui Province. A number of irrigation wells were drilled a few years ago, but they have been in disrepair for nearly two years and have been destroyed. When the wheat field is in urgent need of irrigation, it can't be irrigated. The output could have reached 400 kg, but now it is generally less than 100 kg.
There are 4,692 registered reservoirs in Anhui Province, including 137 1 one, accounting for about 1/3. In 2003, more than 420 reservoirs were in danger.
Poor rural roads are also the strongest problem reflected by the masses. Jingyan Village, Gangji Town, Changfeng County, Anhui Province, has only one or two kilometers of dirt roads from the highway to the village, involving four groups of villagers 1 10,000 people. In the past 40 years, the villagers have reflected it countless times, but it has not been repaired so far. Villager Zhang Enyu said: "Adults and children are seriously ill and have to carry people on their shoulders. When it rains, even tractors can't get out, can't get in, and the village hasn't developed. "
In the past two years, farmers' income has increased rapidly, but it still lags far behind cities. The growth rate of farmers' income in agricultural counties lags behind other regions, and the rapid growth of farmers' income mainly comes from the cancellation of agricultural tax by the state and direct subsidies to grain farmers. The potential of increasing farmers' income is small and the stamina is insufficient.
The reporter learned from the Anhui Agricultural Transfer Team that in 2005, the per capita net income of Anhui farmers was 264 1 yuan, an increase of only 5.7%, which was 1 1.8 percentage points lower than that of the previous year. Among them, the main income of farmers, that is, the net operating income, only increased by 0.7% over the previous year, and the income growth of migrant workers also showed a significant downward trend. Since the abolition of agricultural tax in 2005, 50 million farmers in Anhui Province have received 4 billion yuan from the central and local governments, and the per capita policy income has increased by 1.20 yuan, a record high. The policy of "one exemption and three subsidies" has improved farmers' enthusiasm for farming, but the space for farmers to rely on policies to increase their income is also shrinking, and there is no more way.
Chu Chengsheng, secretary of Lingbi County Committee of Anhui Province, said that from the reality, the national policy of benefiting farmers is only more prominent in reducing agricultural taxes. Since 2004, the expenses of chemical fertilizer, pesticide, machine tillage, seeds and plastic film have increased by 30%, 8%, 22%, 25% and 40% respectively, which "swallowed up" the benefits brought to farmers by preferential policies such as direct grain subsidy and agricultural tax reduction and exemption.
The reporter found that in recent years, the transfer of rural labor force has been accelerated, and rural labor force with certain quality has been transferred. The labor force left in the countryside is either older or lacking skills, and its transfer pace has gradually slowed down after several years of rapid development. According to the survey, in the first half of this year, Jiangsu Province added 323,000 rural laborers, up 2. 1% year-on-year. With the improvement of the organic composition of capital in township enterprises, it began to change from labor-intensive to capital-intensive, from extension to connotation, and the number of labor absorbed gradually decreased. The reduction of employment in township enterprises has forced rural labor to stay in the agricultural field, further reducing agricultural labor productivity and bringing obstacles to agricultural scale and intensive management. Experts believe that the current labor transfer has entered a relatively stable period, and large-scale transfer is not realistic enough. Therefore, we should not place too much hope on the transfer of labor to increase farmers' income.
Zhang Chuanquan, member of the Standing Committee of Chuzhou Municipal Committee of Anhui Province and secretary of Lai 'an County Committee, said that it is difficult for farmers to increase their income. In the long run, it will inevitably lead to the loss of market support for the county economy with the local rural market as the main body and local farmers as the main consumer groups, which will further restrict the development of the county economy.
"What kind of development is in line with Scientific Outlook on Development?" Fan, secretary of the Lujiang County Party Committee, said: "My understanding is that ecological counties should protect the ecology, and large agricultural counties should lay a good agricultural foundation, do a good job in water conservancy, roads and farmland, and provide a stable food source for the country. With an industrial base and good traffic conditions, the industry will be developed. " He said that Lujiang is a late-developing area, but a gap was blown up in the mountain and the mine was opened, so it can't be blown up any more. We should find a scientific and unconventional development model, live like jade, marry well and leave more room for future generations.