To alleviate the pressure of financial support, the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee conducted a survey on the least populous counties in the province: actively piloting and promoting institutional reform throughout the county | institutions | population

On August 11th, Shen Xiaoming, Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, conducted research on the county's economic development in Guzhang County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, and presided over a symposium.

According to reports, Guzhang County has a total population of 143000, making it the least populous county in Hunan Province. The currently under construction Guzhang New City is centered around Guluo Avenue and is expected to complete the first phase of the plan by 2025.

Shen Xiaoming came to Guluo Avenue and listened to the introduction of new city planning and construction, urban-rural coordinated development, and revitalization of land resources at the command and dispatch center of key projects in Guzhang.

Shen Xiaoming said that we must adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts, start from reality, actively pilot and promote the reform of institutional structure in small counties with a small population, optimize the efficiency of government services, reduce financial support pressure, and allocate more limited financial resources to ensure and improve people's livelihoods. We need to promote the new urbanization construction with county towns as an important carrier through reform, improve the quality of living environment, enhance the comprehensive carrying capacity, livable attraction, and radiating power of county towns, and actively explore the path of coordinated urban-rural development that is in line with the actual situation of small population counties and has the characteristics of small population counties.

At the symposium, Shen Xiaoming listened to the opinions and suggestions of entrepreneurs and relevant officials from Xiangxi Prefecture and Guzhang County on the development of the county's economy.

According to the official website of Guzhang County Government, Guzhang County is located in the western part of Hunan Province, in the central eastern part of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, with the Wuling Mountains diagonally crossing the entire area. The highest altitude is 1146 meters, the lowest altitude is 147 meters, the annual precipitation is 1450 millimeters, and the total area is 1297 square kilometers. During the Warring States period, Guzhang belonged to Chu and Qin belonged to Qianzhong Commandery. In the second year of the Qing Dynasty's Daoguang reign, Guzhangping Hall was established, and in the first year of the Republic of China, it was changed to Guzhang County, which has been in existence ever since. The county governs 7 townships, 4 towns, and 1 township level state-owned forest farm, with a total population of 143000 people, of which ethnic minorities account for 76.9%. It is known as the "hometown of forestry, famous tea, weightlifting, and singing and dancing". Guzhang County has 115000 mu of arable land, with less than 1 mu of arable land per capita, which is a typical case of "nine mountains, half water, half land".

It is worth noting that previously, population small counties in multiple provinces such as Shanxi, Anhui, and Inner Mongolia were undergoing pilot institutional restructuring.

According to public reports, in June this year, Chen Long, Deputy Director of the Editorial Office of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, led a team to investigate and inspect the pilot work of institutional reform in small population counties in Loufan County, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province.

Outlook magazine reported in April this year that, according to the China County Statistical Yearbook 2021, among the 2075 county units included in the statistics, 228 counties with a registered residence population of 100000 to 200000, 206 counties with a population of less than 100000, and 90 pocket counties with a population of less than 50000.

Research has found that some small counties with a certain population face many common difficulties in development: financial support cannot make ends meet, and financial expenditures mainly rely on transfer payments; The proportion of financial support personnel is unreasonable, and there is a phenomenon of overcrowding; Small, scattered, and weak public institutions; Some institutional settings and operational systems do not match the high-quality development needs of the county.

In order to reduce the administrative costs and financial burden of counties, improve the operational efficiency of functional departments, and promote high-quality development of counties, populous small counties in Shanxi and other places have begun to explore reform breakthroughs in recent years. Through a "systematic, holistic, and reconstructive" reform approach, they promote institutional integration, functional aggregation, and team integration. Through methods such as "streamlining institutions, optimizing functions, and promoting development", they promote the modernization of governance systems and capabilities, and strive to improve the efficiency of county-level governance.

In 2019, Shanxi conducted a survey on small counties with a population of over 130000 in the province. In one county, the total number of financial support personnel in the county was nearly 6000, and the ratio of the total population to financial support personnel was 22:1.

This phenomenon is more pronounced in small counties with small populations in the central and western regions. For example, a small county in a western province has a total population of only over 40000 people, but the number of financially supported people is nearly 2500. The ratio of the total population of the county to the number of financially supported people is 16.9:1.

In April 2020, in accordance with the deployment requirements of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee, and in accordance with the goal requirements of "large department system, flattening, strengthening grassroots, emphasizing practical combat, and high efficiency", adhering to the principle of "one department is responsible for coordinating one type of matter, and one department is responsible for one matter", Hequ County in Xinzhou City and Fushan County in Linfen City took the lead in carrying out pilot projects to promote comprehensive reform of the county-level administrative operation system.

Subsequently, Shanxi selected Loufan County in Taiyuan City, Shilou County in Lvliang City, Yushe County in Jinzhong City, and Licheng County in Changzhi City with a population of about 100000 as the second batch of reform pilot counties. Currently, both batches of reform pilot counties have achieved phased results.

Data shows that Hequ County has streamlined 36 party and government institutions to 22, reduced 135 leadership positions to 114, integrated 186 reform related public institutions into 40, and reduced the number of public institutions by 48%; Fushan County has streamlined 35 party and government institutions to 22, with a reduction of 37%. The number of department level leadership positions has been reduced from 154 to 128, with a reduction of 17%. The number of county-level public institutions involved in reform has been reduced from 179 to 40, with a reduction of 78%. The number of institutions involved in reform has been reduced from 1944 to 970, with a reduction of only half.

According to data provided by the Office Affairs Service Center of Loufan County, the reform has promoted the joint office of county-level institutions, optimized resources, and reasonably allocated office space. During the reform process, Loufan County has completed the adjustment of office space for 36 units, vacating more than 28000 square meters of public office space, and uniformly registering idle office space. On this basis, the high standard implementation of the talent apartment renovation and expansion project has resulted in the renovation of 130 rooms, providing service guarantees for various talents who come to Loufan to serve.

In January of this year, the Organization Department of the Loufan County Party Committee released the Institutional Reform Chapter of the 2022 Work Summary, which pointed out that comprehensive optimization should be carried out on the 60 public institutions involved in the county's reform from the aspects of functions, institutions, staffing, and funding guarantee, promoting cross departmental integration of institutions with similar responsibilities and tasks, adjusting and optimizing small scale, shrinking functions, and scattered and repetitive settings of public institutions, and improving the overall service guarantee efficiency of public institutions. Successfully completed the listing of 53 units involved in reform, integrated and merged 33 units, streamlined 341 personnel positions, and lowered 56 township personnel positions, saving more than 34.1 million yuan in personnel expenses and approximately 9.9 million yuan in operating expenses.