Guangzhou and the point system

Life of Guangzhou, reports that the point system stablished recently in Shenzhen (with very few results) to decide those who are elegible for local hukou has been extended to Guangzhou. Is this going to be a new general approach? It will be the coastal model? the South model? We’ll keep an eye on it.

The city’s hukou reforms started on march and has been a complete failure, after that, the Shenzhen point system was starting to be discussed and now finally copied. From LifeofGuangzhou

According to Li Qihong, an NPC deputy and Zhongshan’s mayor, more than 30,000 migrant workers working in the city are eligible to become urban citizens, but less than 200 of them have changed their hukou in 2009. (…)

The migrant workers’ hesitation in giving up their rural residence status is well understood by Zhai Weidong, the Party secretary of Chengliu town in Jiyuan City, central Henan Province, a major source of migrant workers.

Zhai told Xinhua rural hukou holders have increasing benefits as the central government and local authorities are giving them more subsidies and many other benefits .

Jiao Tianyin, a villager of Huling in Chengliu, said that one farmer can get subsidies of 100 yuan for one mu of farmland (about 0.067 hectares) each year, 30 to 50 yuan for agricultural machinery. He may get as much as 4,000 yuan as a bonus at the year end and other rewards such as rice and cooking oil.

“If I become an urban citizen and become unemployed, I will have no income and feel depressed. But if I have land, at least I can always make a living,” Jiao said.

“The dilemma exists because people from rural communities want some kind of insurance if they become unemployed in the city,” Zhai said.

Prof. Hu Xingdou, a hukou expert with the Beijing Institute of Technology, said the government should provide complete social security services for those migrant workers. As well, the government should enhance education and training for them to improve their means of livelihood.

Prof. Hu suggested that migrant workers should not have to immediately surrender their land after getting their urban hukou, but Hu Xiaoyan said the rural workers who have settled down in cities should return the land back to maintain fair circulation.

Kong Xiangzhi, deputy mayor of Jiyuan, said job opportunities should be considered as the most pressing issue for the authorities to promote urbanization.