High-quality development project powering province's goal of new growth in countryside

Guangdong held its annual celebration of the Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival on Sunday across the province, with its main venue located in Maoming, a coastal city in the western part of the province.

The event showcased the achievements of rural vitalization in Guangdong via exhibitions, cultural performances and interactive experiences, highlighting the new look and vitality of the province's agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.

Additionally, it featured an exhibition of Guangdong's advantageous and agricultural specialty products, bringing together the harvest achievements from 21 cities across the province.

In recent years, Guangdong has aimed to become a province with strong agriculture, vigorously promoting the high-quality development project for its counties, towns and villages, making a point of developing specialties.

The results of rural vitalization in the province have been remarkable. In the first half of this year, the total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fisheries in Guangdong grew by 3.5 percent, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents exceeded 25,000 yuan ($3,546), an increase of 6.7 percent year-on-year.

The total import and export value of agricultural products continued to rank first in the country during the first six months, and the annual grain output remained stable at over 12.8 million metric tons.

An array of agricultural produce is displayed in celebration of the Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival on Sunday in Maoming, Guangdong province. CHINA DAILY

The construction of modern marine ranches is in full swing, with a total investment exceeding 6.4 billion yuan. Breakthroughs have been made in breeding and equipment innovation, with deep-sea aquaculture technology leading the nation.

The implementation of the high-quality development project for Guangdong's counties, towns and villages, proposed by the Guangdong Committee of the Communist Party of China, was approved in 2022. This project has been prioritized as a top initiative in the province since early 2023, with coordinated urban-rural integration as a key approach during its implementation.

The CPC Guangdong Committee also called for increased efforts in regional urban-rural coordination to promote the efficient use of development space, orderly flow of production factors, balanced allocation of public resources, and equal coverage of basic public services, aiming to dismantle the dual urban-rural system.

The project targets 122 counties — which also include county-level cities and districts — across the province, with their 1,609 towns and 26,500 administrative villages. By 2025, the system and mechanism for urban-rural integration development are expected to take shape, accelerating county-level economic development and achieving new results in urbanization and rural vitalization, local officials said.

By 2027, significant progress in coordinated urban-rural development is expected, with a marked enhancement in the comprehensive strength of counties. Economically strong counties and towns, as well as harmonious and beautiful villages, will emerge, achieving breakthrough progress in the practice of Chinese-style modernization at the county level.

Looking ahead to 2035, the role and importance of counties in the province's economic and social development will become more prominent. New urbanization will be basically achieved, rural vitalization will make decisive progress, urban-rural development will be more coordinated and balanced, and common prosperity will see more substantial progress.

On March 29, during a news conference held by the State Council Information Office, Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong stated that the imbalance in urban-rural regional development is the biggest problem in Guangdong's high-quality development.

"We will persevere and work tirelessly to enhance the comprehensive strength of county economies," Wang said.

"We also plan to focus on improving township development, effectively promote comprehensive rural vitalization, and facilitate the orderly transfer of industries from the Pearl River Delta to eastern, western and northern Guangdong, in a bid to transform our problem into potential strength," he added.

In 2023, the combined GDP of county-level regions in Guangdong grew by 5.2 percent year-on-year, with 112 towns being among the top 1,000 towns nationwide, and the income ratio between urban and rural residents narrowed to 2.36:1.

In May, Guangdong issued this year's work priorities for comprehensively advancing the high-quality development project for its counties, towns and villages, outlining 41 specific requirements across six major areas, including industrial development, residential environment construction, public services and social governance.

In the industrial development sector, for example, the province proposes to transfer at least 600 industrial projects to its destined 15 industrial platforms; cultivate 10 modern agricultural industry belts, each with a full-industry-chain output value of over 10 billion yuan; designate approximately 100 new provincial-level leading agricultural enterprises; and commence 50 new modern marine ranching projects.