Hangzhou, September 10 (Report) — In September 2019, Longgang City in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, emerged out of nowhere as a "city," becoming the country's first "town upgraded to city." Over the past five years, how effective have the reforms of abolishing the town and establishing the city been? What transferable experience has Longgang provided?

　　On September 9, a press conference on Longgang's new urbanization and urban-rural integration development was held in Hangzhou. Pan Zhihong, deputy secretary-general of the China Society for Economic System Reform and dean of the Institute of Local Reform and Innovation, said at the conference that Longgang's reform exploration has provided useful experience for the country in advancing new urbanization, and is demonstrative and leading in determining the standards for upgrading towns to cities, reducing administrative operating costs, improving county-level grassroots governance, and promoting urban-rural integration development.

　　Before the town was abolished and the city established, Longgang had already undergone a transformation from a small fishing village to a farmers' town, and then from a farmers' town to an industrial town. In 2018, Longgang's population reached 380,000, its GDP was 29.95 billion yuan, and its per capita GDP was 78,600 yuan; its urban construction, urban scale, urban functions, and urban capacity had reached a relatively high level.

　　Li Jie, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, pointed out that with Longgang's rapid development, the original town system could no longer meet the needs of reform and development, mainly in three respects: reform of power delegation faced bottlenecks, the release of urbanization potential was constrained, and the problem of "a small horse pulling a big cart" was prominent.

　　Taking the abolition of the town and establishment of the city as a new starting point for development, over the past five years Longgang has anchored itself to the reform direction of "super-ministries, flattening, low cost, and high efficiency," and has shouldered the mission of exploring a path for the country's new urbanization reform.

　　In accordance with the requirements of the "super-ministry" reform, Longgang merged and reorganized departments with similar functions and interconnected operations. The city has only 6 Party committee departments, 9 government departments, and 6 public institutions, and jointly advances reforms such as "one seal for approval," "one team for law enforcement," and "one list for transferring functions," effectively undertaking 100% of administrative management functions with 40% of administrative resources.

　　At the same time, Longgang has become the country's first new county-level city without townships, towns, or subdistricts, implementing a penetrating and direct management model of "city-administered communities." It is reported that Longgang persists in digitally empowering grassroots governance, has legislated to clarify the positioning and functions of communities, and has explored and formed a new efficient and flat governance model of "city-community-grid," achieving "implementation all the way to the bottom and management at a single level all the way through."

　　Urban management costs have continued to decline. Where do the saved funds go? The answer is people's livelihood.

　　Every year, Longgang allocates more than 80% of its fiscal revenue to expenditures on people's livelihood, vigorously implements actions to shore up weaknesses and improve the quality of public services, and continuously advances the building of "medical communities," "elderly care communities," "education communities," and "cultural communities." Over the past five years, the city has built 65 high-standard Oujiang Red "Shared Communities · Happy Neighborhoods," created more than 500 various shared scenes such as neighborhood canteens and shared study rooms, raised the county-level medical treatment rate by 33.4 percentage points, and newly built, renovated, or expanded 52 schools, adding nearly one-third more school seats...

　　With people's livelihood security as the foundation, talent is attracted from near and far, and industry is flourishing. Longgang has created a citywide "dual IP" of "Youth Ideal Destination" and "City Partner," adding more than 20,000 college graduates in the past three years. At the same time, it pays tribute to entrepreneurs with "C-position seating." Its number of market entities per 10,000 people ranks among the top three in Zhejiang Province, and the output value of its three traditional industries—printing and packaging, new materials, and green textiles—as well as strategic emerging industries has surged year after year.

　　It is understood that to date Longgang has successively implemented 7 national-level and 38 Zhejiang provincial-level reform pilots, and 3 cases have been selected as typical cases of China's reform. The dividends of reform continue to be released: Longgang's GDP has exceeded 40 billion yuan, its growth rate has ranked among the top two in Wenzhou and the top five in Zhejiang for two consecutive years, its permanent resident population has grown by 21.3%, and its urbanization rate of the permanent resident population has reached 98.2%.

　　He Zongjing, secretary of the Longgang Municipal Party Committee, said that Longgang will seize opportunities, tackle difficulties, and climb higher, accelerate its development into the country's source of new urbanization reform, strive to create more landmark reform achievements with Longgang's distinctive identity, and further polish the golden名片 of "Famous Reform City · Pearl of Ouyue."