The only local regulation of "Municipal Community Management" in the country! Longgang Has New Actions Longgang | Community | Regulations

Longgang, located on the banks of the Aojiang River in Wenzhou, was once renowned both domestically and internationally for its self funded construction by farmers, earning it the title of "China's first farmer's city.".

In August 2019, this town was approved to be directly upgraded to a county-level city, becoming the first "town to city" in the country.

In the fourth year of town withdrawal and county-level city establishment, another major event related to Longgang occurred yesterday - on July 28th, the Longgang Community Governance Regulations were unanimously approved by the Fourth Session of the 14th Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress.

This is also the only local regulation in the country that regulates "municipal managed communities" and will be implemented from September 25th this year. This day is the fourth anniversary of the establishment of Longgang City.

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Longgang is a very representative city.

After the reform and opening up, a group of distinctive mega towns gradually formed in China. Although they are "towns", they often have a "county-level" population and a "city level" economic volume, forming a unique "mega town phenomenon". Longgang is one of them.

At the end of 2014, Longgang was listed as one of the first national comprehensive pilot projects for new urbanization. In order to promote the orderly establishment of mega towns, explore paths and models, and solve the dilemma of "small horses pulling big carts" in China's mega towns.

In August 2019, with the approval of the State Council, Longgang Town in Cangnan County was abolished and a county-level Longgang City was established.

Longgang is also a very special city.

In recent decades, the main model of China's municipal system has been "withdrawing counties to establish cities" or "withdrawing land to establish cities". In the past, the reform of the township system either adopted the path of township to town or township to street, or adopted institutional models such as "strengthening towns and expanding power" and "managing rural finances and counties".

And Longgang chose a different path - upgrading directly from an administrative town to a county-level city. The deeper meaning behind it is that it has opened up a reform channel for the "new type of city establishment", and has established a modern urban structure and explored the path for transformation and development for a group of super large towns and economically developed towns.

The social governance structure of Longgang is very interesting.

Longgang does not have any townships or streets, and implements a new "city community" two-level grassroots governance model, which is directly managed by the city in the community. That is to say, here, the secretary of the community party organization can directly report their work to the office of the municipal party secretary.

But there are hundreds of communities in the city, so Longgang attempts to transfer government functions to society, allowing personnel and power to sink from a single government agency to communities and grassroots levels, ultimately promoting the autonomy of various communities in Longgang, accelerating government transformation, slimming down, and improving efficiency, and creating a county level "diversified governance" Longgang model.

Today in China, new urbanization is an important engine of modernization. The series of explorations in Longgang is not only for better development of itself, but also to establish a simplified, efficient, and innovative new model of city establishment for the whole country, activating the huge potential for the transformation and development of a number of super large towns and economically developed towns.

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Speaking of the regulations introduced this time.

The formulation of the Regulations is aimed at solving practical problems.

As mentioned earlier, there are no townships or streets in Longgang. After the town was disbanded and the city was established, Longgang carried out "streamlining troops and simplifying administration" according to the functional business of the department. For example, the Longgang Economic Development Bureau corresponds to 8 bureaus in the economic sector, while the Social Affairs Bureau is formed by the merger of 9 departments related to people's livelihood.

Longgang has an area of 1.83 million square kilometers and a permanent population of 460000, but the city only has 6 party committee institutions, 9 government departments, and 1 mass organization department. The number of institutions and personnel is about 40% of that of similar counties, forming a unique model of "large department system, flattening, low cost, and high efficiency".

What is an efficient method? Most personal affairs in Longgang can be handled at home, and we are still exploring a grassroots model under the "mobile government living room". We plan to conduct it once a week to make administrative approval like ordering takeout. High frequency items such as bus cards, property registration, and ID cards can be processed immediately upon appointment, on-site, and door-to-door.

Of course, the legal issues associated with flattening are also evident. The problem faced by Longgang is precisely because there are no townships.

The current laws mostly allocate administrative functions according to the four level administrative management system of provinces, cities, counties, and townships, and do not consider situations like Longgang where there is no township level.

This has led to the ambiguity of the responsible parties for some work matters. Some work matters have already been taken over by communities and social organizations in a factual manner, but communities and social organizations are not the main responsible parties, and the ultimate responsibility is still borne by the municipal government.

Who will undertake the functions at the township level? How does community governance operate? These need to be defined at the legal level.

Zhejiang has always adhered to the principle of having legal basis for major reforms, with particular emphasis on legislation in emerging areas and breakthroughs in reform. In November 2021, the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress reviewed and approved the decision on promoting and ensuring the comprehensive reform of new urbanization in Longgang City, clarifying the basic framework for legal responsibilities to be undertaken after the cancellation of townships in Longgang - "upward delegation".

The administrative management responsibilities shall be raised and exercised by the Longgang Municipal People's Government and its relevant departments; Partial service-oriented and transactional matters are delegated to community autonomous organizations and other social organizations through delegation, purchase of social services, and other means.

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The decision issued by the province has set the framework. More specific issues need to be implemented at the municipal level.

The regulations passed this time revolve around a key point: how to manage the municipal community?

Through continuous practice, Longgang has explored and constructed a new grassroots governance model of "Party building leadership, municipal community management, grid connectivity, group services, and overall intelligent governance".

One prominent approach is to bind the responsibilities of city leaders and departments with the community, and achieve "linked services"; 465 government officials "do not sit in government offices and sit in communities" to implement sinking services and resolve grassroots conflicts on the spot; According to the principle of "community needs, government can transfer, and social forces can undertake", establish a "diversified co governance" of social forces such as community autonomous organizations, enterprises, local elites, and volunteers. These are all reflected in the Regulations.

The city governs the community, and the city is the key. The Regulations further promote the leading role of "municipal management" and require the Wenzhou Municipal Government to introduce relevant policies and assessment methods to support the governance reform of Longgang community; The Longgang Municipal Government needs to strengthen policy support, personnel allocation, and funding support for the community, as well as establish a sound working mechanism for departments to directly contact and serve the community.

What tasks does the community undertake? The Regulations require a "pull list". The Longgang Municipal Government needs to draft three lists, namely: a list of work tasks undertaken by community autonomous organizations in accordance with the law, a list of work tasks assisted by community autonomous organizations in accordance with the law, and a list of tasks entrusted to community autonomous organizations by the Longgang Municipal Government and relevant departments. Work items outside the list shall not be entrusted to the community.

After the passage of the Regulations, Longgang community workers are quite happy because it concerns their welfare. For example, it is clear that education and training for community workers should be strengthened, and a reasonable number of personnel should be provided. Relevant units and state-owned enterprises can arrange a certain number of job positions for open recruitment of outstanding full-time community workers.

Professor Lai Xianxian from the Public Management Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China commented on the regulations, saying, "This further clarifies the path and measures for the legal responsibility of 'city managed communities' after the town is abolished and the city is established, providing strong legal protection for Longgang to deepen the comprehensive reform of national new urbanization."

I believe that in the future, Longgang will further expand the advantages of flat reform and provide more effective experience and scientific paths for modernization in Zhejiang Province.