人地掛鉤(réndì guàgōu):System connecting people with land

On Monday, the National Development and Reform Commission and four ministries, including the Ministry of Land and Resources, jointly issued a document on establishing a system to connect land and people. This is aimed at increasing the availability of urban construction land and guaranteeing the change from a rural to urban household registration for people that move to cities from rural areas.

The document proposes establishing a basic connection mechanism between people and the land by 2018, in order to guarantee the supply of land for urban development to meet the needs of the 100 million people expected to migrate to the cities from rural areas.

Officials of the Ministry of Land and Resources stressed that guaranteeing the rights and interests of the population migrating from rural areas to live in the cities is a key part of the new document.

According to the central document, the migrating population's land contract rights, right to the use of rural residential land and right of collective revenue distribution are to be protected. The authorities should not make the population waive these three rights as a condition of gaining an urban household registration.

A new system connecting people with land is expected to improve the quality of basic public services in rural areas.