Farmers' Daily, farmer.com.cn:

Rural governance has always been a focus of public concerns. What are the priorities for rural governance in the No. 1 central document this year? And what measures will you take? Thank you.

Tang Renjian:

The National Rural Revitalization Administration is in charge of concrete work regarding rural development and rural governance. Let's give the floor to Mr. Liu Huanxin.

Liu Huanxin:

General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to rural governance, stressing that we should innovate the system to achieve good governance in rural areas. Rural governance is the cornerstone of China's state governance and an important part of rural revitalization. This year, the No. 1 central document outlines three priorities for rural governance.

First, we should strengthen the development of rural community-level organizations. The success of rural areas hinges on the Party, which is our biggest institutional strength. We should focus on team-building, strengthening the function of county-level Party committees in promoting Party building at township and village levels. After the elections at township and village levels, we will carry out extensive training on the theme of rural revitalization, helping resident first Party secretaries and working teams play their role to the full. We will also strengthen the leading groups, and implement a gridded management model, digitalization empowerment and refined services. We should focus on mechanism establishment, implementing in real earnest a "4+2" system. Here, "4" means four steps: proposals should be put forward by the Party branch, jointly discussed by the village committee and the Party branch, and deliberated by Party members, and resolutions should be adopted by villagers' representatives; "2" means transparency on two levels: resolutions and implementation results should be made known to the public. By doing this, we will make sure that all the important affairs and problems at village level will be studied and discussed by village Party organizations, and their leadership over various other village-level organizations will be enhanced and improved. Meanwhile, a rural governance model which combines self-governance, rule of law, and rule of virtue will be improved under the leadership of Party organizations. We should focus on supervision, carrying out extensive disciplinary inspections for city and county-level Party committees. We will strengthen communication and coordination between grassroots disciplinary inspection commissions and committees for supervision of village affairs and ensure effective dovetailing to enhance the supervision over village officials.

Second, we should promote cultural and ethical progress. The key is to explore new ways to enable the voice and call of the Party to reach thousands of rural households in a form that is more acceptable and easily understandable to rural people. Nowadays, rural areas are still underdeveloped in culture. We will enrich the cultural life of rural people, increase the supply of cultural and intellectual products, and support farmers to actively organize and participate in cultural activities and sports. Low-cost, participant-friendly, healthy, and positive recreational activities will be introduced for rural people to enjoy — although not necessarily high-end, ostentatious ones — as long as they can produce the desired effect. We will also strengthen focused efforts to tackle problems such as high bride price, cash gift competition, luxurious funerals, and lack of family support to the elderly in order to promote a positive cultural environment in civil and neighborly communities that features good family traditions and simple and honest people.

Third, we should explore new models and new platforms. In recent years, we carried out trials and demonstrations for developing a rural governance system and explored some good approaches, including using reward points and task lists. Next, we will step up efforts to promote the application of such approaches and set up clearly detailed standards, regulated procedures, and evaluation mechanisms in order to yield solid results in rural governance and deliver tangible benefits for farmers. Thank you.