Comprehensive Management for Better Rural Infrastructure and Service Delivery: Lessons from the Implementation of China’s Six Point Rural Action Plan in Guizhou Province

Abstract

Along with the process of urbanization in China, the country has clearly put forward The National New-Style Urbanization Plan to promote the integration of urban and rural development, allow all of the people living in rural areas to participate in China’s modernization and share the achievements of development. Meanwhile, the country has launched lots of policies to promote rural stability, agricultural development and farmers’ income. In 2013, China launched the Beautiful Countryside program to strengthen rural ecology, environmental protection and comprehensive improvement, and strive to build a beautiful countryside. This policy is quite flexible and involves more than aesthetics. It can support rural infrastructure construction, industrial and economic development, improvement of living environments, social and cultural development, and protection of natural, historical, and cultural resources as well as beautification projects. In accordance with the policy requirements, all provinces in China have worked out the implementation plans. Guizhou province is located in South Central China, most of the province’s land (92.5%) consists of mountains and hills, water resources are limited. As a poor province, Guizhou has proposed many policies to promote the development of rural areas over the years, and some of them have made great impact. In 2013, the Provincial Government issued a policy document titled “Promote the Development of The Countryside and Build a Beautiful Countryside—Six Point Action Plan Program for Rural Infrastructure”, which emphasizes improving living conditions in rural areas by promoting roads, drinking water and irrigation, electricity, telecommunications, housing, and the environment. This paper will study the policy and focus on the formulation of the policy implementation and management. The research group at Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute’s China Rural Planning and Construction Research Center launched an investigation of the implementation of Guizhou’s Six Point Action Plan in 2015, they conducted an investigation of the planning and implementation process in 10 administrative villages representative of the variety of villages in Guizhou Province, and obtained a set of comprehensive data. On this basis, this paper firstly introduces the policy objectives and the key projects. Then, it introduces the governance and plan implementation in detail. In the end, the paper summarizes the experience of policy implementation, including breaking down and refining policy goals, paying attention to organization and project management, involving civil society and individuals in projects, providing multiple funding channels, promoting citizen participation and so on.