Country beds now better than city homes
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Farmers used to be desperate to enter the town, but now members of the urban elite like the civil servants are starting to go back to countryside. How huge are the vested interests involved to enable such a drastic change?
Local officials estimate that an average 108 meter rural house site can produce far more than a million yuan in rent, collective bonuses, and appreciating land values.
Yiwu is a practical sample of the problems that plague China's urbanization. This is especially painful when developing local economies clash with scarcity.
A recent survey showed that, in East China's Zhejiang Province, one of the regions with the greatest flow of migrants, the number of provincial residents shifting from a rural to an urban hukou has dramatically declined. The number went down by almost 70 percent, from 577,000 in 2004 to 189,000 in 2009.
More and more State support for rural areas means that migrant workers returning to the countryside have started businesses much more profitable than in towns. A small flat in town can change for a comfortable house in the countryside, where less economic pressure also means higher living standards.
In the process of urbanization, cities want to benefit from the low-cost work force from rural areas, but are reluctant to offer them access to public services and social welfare, further marginalizing these migrants.
The main reason for this return to the fields lies in increasing business opportunities for farmers and other rural residents, but less profits for those going to the city.
But what should worry us is that if this counter-urbanization process spins out of control, the urbanization could halt in the coming years. More and more migrants returning to countryside also jeopardize efforts to grow domestic consumption.
At the crossroad of China's urbanization, a bed in the city has lost its former appeal. Speeding up public welfare in the big cities by providing affordable accommodation, raising minimum salaries, and helping migrants find work, is something the government needs to tackle now.
The author is a media commentator. viewpoint@globaltimes.com.cn
