China Will Carry Out Pilot Construction of Youth Development-Oriented Cities

Source:http://jinan.dzwww.com/qcxw/202205/t20220507_10209414.htm

The reporter learned from the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League: With 17 departments including the Central Propaganda Department and the National Development and Reform Commission，the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League recently issued relevant opinions to carry out pilot construction of youth development-oriented cities, which aims to promote high-quality development of youth, make cities more friendly to youth, and let youth live in cities to get more achievements.

It is understood that a youth development-oriented city refers to solidly promoting new urbanization strategy with people as the core, which actively implements the concept of giving priority to youth development, and increasingly optimizes the policy and social environment which better meet the diverse and multi-level development needs of the youth. It’s a mode in which creativity and urban innovation stimulate each other, and high-quality youth development and high-quality urban development promote each other.

The opinions point out that by 2025, through the experiences of pilot exploration, the working mechanism of urban youth development planning will be relatively sound, the concept of giving priority to youth development will be widely recognized by the society, the evaluation system of youth development-oriented cities will be gradually established and improved, and urban youth development policies will be more systematic and comprehensive. It is more inclusive, and the initiative and contribution of young people to participate in urban development will be significantly improved.

The opinions put forward to optimize a fair and high-quality educational environment, which includes to increase investment in basic education, improve the admission system without examinations, consolidate the achievements of controlling dropouts and guaranteeing school, and gradually realize the same-city admission treatment for the children of young migrant workers who have moved with them, so that young people in the compulsory education stage have a fair opportunity to receive education.

Meanwhile, the opinions also propose to improve the public service system for youth employment, which includes to focus on college graduates, new-generation migrant workers, unemployed youth and other groups, expand employment capacity, strengthen employment guidance and vocational skills training, help young people achieve knowledge update and skill improvement, and provide more high-quality employment opportunities for youth.

The full text is shown as follows:

Opinions on Launching the Pilot Construction of Youth Development-Oriented Cities

A youth development-oriented city refers to solidly promoting new urbanization strategy with people as the core, which actively implements the concept of giving priority to youth development, and increasingly optimizes the policy and social environment which better meet the diverse and multi-level development needs of the youth. It’s a mode in which creativity and urban innovation stimulate each other, and high-quality youth development and high-quality urban development promote each other. In order to thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, and to further promote the implementation of the Mid- and Long-Term Youth Development Plan (2016-2025), after deliberation and approval at the inter-ministerial joint meeting for the implementation of the medium and long-term youth development plan, it was decided to carry out the pilot construction of a youth development-oriented city, and put forward the following comments.

I General Requirements

1. Guiding ideology

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and the 19th  Plenary Sessions, we should study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thoughts on youth work, and give better play to the guiding role of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of Vision 2035, adhere to the people-centered development concept, stand at the new development stage, implement the new development concept, build a new development pattern, promote high-quality development, face urban construction development, strengthen forward-looking research and planning, enrich youth-friendly policies, build a platform for youth achievement, continuously improve the policy transformation efficiency of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on the strategic deployment of comprehensive youth development, and continuously improve the youth's sense of gain, happiness, and security in urban life, encourage young people to work tirelessly to achieve the second centenary goal and realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

2. Basic principles

--Adhere to the principle of the Party governing the youth. Adhere to the leadership of the Party throughout the entire process of building a youth development-oriented city, give full play to the role of joint conference mechanism of the youth work led by Party committees at all levels, and improve the work pattern of Party committee leadership, government responsibility, joint management by all departments, and wide participation of the whole society, adhere to the system concept, coordinate development and security, and place the promotion of the comprehensive development of youth in a more important strategic position in the overall situation of urban work.

--Advocate the priority development of youth. Thoroughly implement the concept that the cause of the Party and the country must develop and youth must develop firstly, deeply grasp the dialectical relationship between youth development and urban development, pay full attention to the historic changes in the size and structure of China's youth population, respect the law of youth growth, take into account the characteristics of the youth, give priority to solving the problems of urgency and hope that affect the healthy growth of young people and distract the energy of young officers, so as to promote the high-quality development of young people.

--Inspire young people to take responsibility. Closely combine the provision of development services with the encouragement of talents and achievements, fully stimulate the initiative, enthusiasm and creativity of young people to participate in the construction of youth development-oriented cities, provide young people with space to build their dreams and realize their dreams, gather young human resource for the city, and maximize the new force of young people in the high-quality development of cities.

--Focus on the orientation of inclusive benefit and equality. Better play the role of policy traction, make up for the shortcomings of equalization of basic public services from the perspective of youth, and help young people solve their worries about graduation, job hunting, innovation and entrepreneurship, social integration, marriage and friendship, elderly care, and children's education. We will strive to create favorable conditions for the development of young people, so that they can feel that care is around us and in front of them, so that they can continuously enhance their sense of gain, happiness and security.

3. Scope of application

(1)  Municipalities directly under the Central Government;

(2) Municipalities with Independent Planning Status under the National, Social and Economic Development approved by the State Council;

(3)  Sub-provincial cities;

(4)  Prefecture-level cities.

Municipal districts or national-level new districts of municipalities directly under the Central Government may refer to the implementation.

4. Building goals

Through the experience of pilot exploration, by 2025, urban youth development planning working mechanism will be relatively sound, the concept of giving priority to youth development will have been widely recognized by the society, the evaluation system of youth development-oriented cities will be gradually established and improved, and urban youth development policies will be more systematic and more common, and the initiative and contribution of young people to participate in urban development will be significantly improved. By 2035, urban youth development planning working mechanism will be more complete and perfect. Building a youth development-oriented city will become a conscious action to change the development mode and improve the quality of the city, the concept of giving priority to the development of youth will become a general consensus in the society, and urban youth development policy system will be more mature and finalized. The role of youth in promoting urban development will become more prominent.

II Focusing on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Youth, Making Cities More Friendly to the Youth

1.Focus on optimizing the youth development-oriented urban planning environment that prioritizes the development of youth. Promote the integration of the concept of youth priority development into urban development strategies, reflect youth elements in the entire process of urban planning, construction and management, take care of youth characteristics, and create a city business card with youth characteristics. Youth development shall be incorporated into the national economic and social development plans of the region, and coordination with various special plans shall be strengthened. Establish and improve the joint meeting mechanism for youth work, and give full play to the role of strategic research, policy coordination, project implementation and supervision in the field of youth development, encourage qualified cities to formulate special plans for youth development in their regions.

2. Focus on optimizing a fair and high-quality youth development-oriented urban educational environment. Increase investment in basic education, improve the admission system without examinations, consolidate the achievements of controlling dropouts and guaranteeing school admission, and gradually realize the equal admission treatment for the children of young migrant workers who have moved with them, so that young people in the compulsory education stage have a fair opportunity to receive education. Improve the popularization of high school education, enhance the effectiveness of higher education in educating people, enhance the adaptability of vocational education, improve the guarantee mechanism for special education and specialized education, and promote the standardized development of private education, so that young people can obtain higher-quality education and growth. Adhere to the public welfare attribute of education, implement the main responsibility of the government, strengthen the main position of schools, continue to standardize off-campus training behavior, further reduce the burden of students' homework and off-campus training during the compulsory education stage, and effectively relieve the burden and anxiety of young parents.

3. Focus on optimizing the employment environment of youth development-oriented cities that encourages young people to display their talents. Improve the youth employment public service system, focus on college graduates, the new generation of migrant workers, unemployed youth and other groups, expand employment capacity, strengthen employment guidance and vocational skills training, help youth achieve knowledge update and skill improvement, and provide youth with more high-quality jobs. Improve the labor contract system, labor relationship coordination mechanism, labor dispute mediation and arbitration system, improve the labor rights protection mechanism for employees in new formats, and effectively safeguard the legitimate labor rights and interests of young people. Improve the mechanism for reasonable wage growth, and promote more young groups, such as college graduates and skilled talents to enter the ranks of middle-income groups.

4. Focus on optimizing the youth development-oriented urban living environment that guarantees the basic housing needs of the youth. Adhere to the positioning that houses are for living in, not for speculation, accelerate the improvement of the housing security system with public rental housing, affordable rental housing and shared property housing as the main body, ensure public rental housing, and increase the supply of affordable rental housing, mainly use collectively-owned commercial construction land, idle land owned by enterprises and institutions, supporting land in industrial parks and existing idle housing construction, appropriately use newly supplied state-owned construction land to build affordable rental housing, and strengthen the government’s efforts in land, finance, etc. policy support, give full play to the role of the market mechanism, and actively solve the housing difficulties of new citizens, young people and other groups. Develop shared property housing according to local conditions. Improve long-term rental policies, strengthen the supervision of asset-light housing leasing companies, support the development of asset-heavy housing leasing companies, standardize housing leasing intermediary services, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of lessees, and gradually enable rental and purchase of housing to enjoy equal rights to public services. Resident families, enterprises and institutions are encouraged to use idle housing for rent, effectively revitalizing the stock housing resources. Promote short-term residential services such as "Youth Station". Strengthen the construction of a complete community. 

5. Focus on optimizing the youth development-oriented urban living environment that alleviates the problems of youth in marriage, love, childbirth and parenting. Strengthen the education and guidance of young people's concept of marriage, childbirth and family concept, advocate eugenics and childbirth, and take multiple measures to provide unmarried youths with marriage, friendship, and premarital health care services. Establish a dynamic monitoring and analysis mechanism for the marriage rate, divorce rate and fertility rate, and implement a positive marriage and childbearing policy. Focusing on the needs of improving the quality of the birth population, increase the supply of medical resources for obstetrics, neonatal, pediatrics and children's health care, strengthen breastfeeding consultation and guidance, promote extensive coverage of maternal and infant facilities, and enhance comprehensive birth defect prevention, prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis capabilities to improve the whole service of prenatal and postnatal care. Develop affordable, convenient and accessible inclusive childcare and infant care services, improve the guarantee mechanism for inclusive preschool education, and provide scientific parenting guidance for infants’ and young children's families, so as to relieve young people's worries about parenting. Improve the basic pension service system, encourage the development of voluntary services for the elderly, and reduce the pressure on young people to support the elderly.

6. Focus on optimizing the youth development-oriented urban healthy environment that promotes the physical and mental growth and development of young people. Implement the national fitness strategy, promote the construction of sports parks, promote the opening of public sports facilities to various groups of people including teenagers for free or at a low cost, develop youth sports clubs and special events, and help teenagers develop sports hobbies, skills and exercise habits. Guide young people to devote themselves to the construction of healthy China, actively participate in patriotic health campaigns and healthy China actions, practice a civilized and healthy lifestyle, clean up tobacco (including electronic cigarette) sales points around schools and children's palaces and other youth gathering places, and create a smoke-free growth atmosphere. Strengthen the prevention and control of myopia and obesity in children and adolescents, improve the physical health monitoring system for adolescents, and guide adolescents to develop strong and healthy muscles and bones. Strengthen mental health education and services for young people, increase awareness of mental health, support the development of professional psychological counseling institutions and social organizations, train young people's mental health professionals, and give better play to the basic role of families in mental health education.

7. Focus on optimizing the youth development-oriented urban safety environment that effectively protects the rights and interests of youth from accidental and illegal violations. Strengthen publicity and education on the rule of law for juveniles, effectively prevent juvenile delinquency, promote the protection of juveniles in accordance with the law, deal with relevant typical cases in a timely manner, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of juveniles. Incorporate safety precaution standards into urban infrastructure construction plans, strengthen life education, sexual and reproductive health education, and safety education for young people, enhance their self-protection awareness and ability to prevent and avoid disasters, and guide young people to cherish and love life. Pay attention to network security, strengthen cyberspace governance, curb the infiltration of illegal and bad information on young people, control the problem of young people's addiction to online games, control the chaos of telecommunication and network fraud crimes, and severely crack down on cases that violate the rights and interests of young people online.

III Focusing on the High-Quality Development of the Meritorious City, Making the Youth More Successful in the City

1.Organize and mobilize young people to lead the fashion of urban civilization. Carry out in-depth study and education of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, strengthen education on the history of the party, the history of new China, the history of reform and opening up, and the history of socialist development, strengthen education on patriotism, collectivism and socialism, and improve the ideals and beliefs of young people. Continue to carry out education on socialist core values, give full play to the role models of groups, such as winners of national medals and national honorary titles, moral models, role models of the times, labor models, the most beautiful people and winners of the China youth Wusi Medal, advocate a culture of integrity, promote the spirit of labor, guide young people to be active practitioners of socialist core values, strengthen the construction of network civilization, guide young people to strive to be good netizens in China, and take the lead in creating a clear and clean network space. Stimulate the role of young people to open up the atmosphere, guide young people to enthusiastically support charities, participate in voluntary services in an institutionalized and universal manner, gain spiritual strength in serving the society, and become contributors and communicators of urban cultural soft power.

2.Organize and mobilize young people to join the upsurge of innovation and entrepreneurship. Improve the discovery and training, evaluation and use, flow allocation, incentive and guarantee mechanism of young talents, and create an urban atmosphere of attracting, retaining, utilizing and gathering talents. Carry forward the spirit of scientists and entrepreneurship, advocate the innovation and entrepreneurship culture of dedication, leanness, focus and tolerance of failure, strengthen the main role of enterprises in innovation, and encourage more young people to join mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Give full play to the role of talent aggregation and resource docking of carriers such as common technology platforms, entrepreneurship incubation parks, innovation and entrepreneurship events, and associations. Deepen the reform of delegating power and regulating services, improving the inclusive and prudent supervision mode suitable for emerging industries, and creating a business environment for young people to start businesses and businesses.

3.Organize and mobilize young people to make achievements based on their posts. Focusing on the implementation of major national strategies and the implementation of the overall urban development plan, organize young people to stand up and overcome difficulties during the construction of major projects and before the task of renewing urgent difficulties and dangers. Focusing on deepening the supply-side structural reform and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, vigorously promote the spirit of craftsmen, cultivate more high-skilled young talents, improve incentive policies such as points settlement, and mobilize young people to improve work quality, innovate and create efficiency and excellence based on their own positions. Select and establish typical youth struggles, publicize youth struggle stories, stimulate youth vitality and potential, and mobilize young people from all fields, especially young people in emerging fields, to join urban construction and help urban development.

4.Organize and mobilize young people to participate in social governance in an orderly manner. Give play to the role of mass organizations in social governance, smooth the way for young people to participate in social governance, and cultivate a team of young talents in grass-roots governance. Relying on the carrier of the Communist Youth League, the deputies of the National People's Congress and the CPPCC members face-to-face and organizational hubs such as the youth federation and the students' federation, create more opportunities for young people to directly offer advice and suggestions to the city managers, and enhance the youth's sense of ownership in the city's economic and social development. Regulate the development of youth social organizations, and strengthen the team of youth affairs social workers. Explore the construction of youth development-oriented communities, guide young people to actively participate in community social organizations according to their interests and hobbies, use Weibo, WeChat and other new media to maintain close daily exchanges, participate in community volunteer services, and participate in community public affairs, and give full play to the youth's role in community governance and services with positive effects.

5. Organizing and mobilizing young people to improve the quality of life. Educate young people to establish the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, mobilize young people to start from themselves and start from small things, advocate green travel, garbage sorting, clear your plate campaign, water saving, electricity saving and other green lifestyles, enhance their awareness of saving and practice green consumption. Adapt to the changes in young people's consumption psychology and characteristics, reasonably guide young people's consumption needs, develop a youth economy with young people as the main producers and consumers, expand new consumption patterns and new formats that young people like to see, carefully create high-quality consumption experience scenes, and give full play to the youth's unique role in boosting the positive interaction between consumption level and life quality improvement. Implement urban renewal actions, optimize urban layout, improve urban functions, fully consider the needs of youth for study, life and work, explore and establish urban public service space and facility construction standards that are compatible with youth development, and effectively enhance youth participation in urban construction. and contribution.

IV Organization and Implementation

1. Strengthen organizational leadership. The Office of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference for the Implementation of the Medium-Long-Term Youth Development Plan will coordinate the pilot work of building a youth development-oriented city, select and determine the pilot units, and promote the establishment of standard norms and evaluation mechanisms. The provincial youth work joint conferences have strengthened the guidance on the pilot projects for the construction of youth development-oriented cities in their regions, and fully mobilized the initiative of the grassroots. The pilot cities rely on the youth work joint meeting at the same level to formulate specific implementation plans.

2. Promote orderly and vigorously. Building a youth development-oriented city is not one-size-fits-all, fully consider the reality at the grassroot level, adopt the strategy of piloting first and advancing in batches, encourage non-pilot cities or some urban areas to implement policies and explore experiences according to the city, so that the concept of youth-first development can be explored with the concept of urban construction and operation and gradually become popular in the process of integration.

3. Improve monitoring and evaluation. Pilot cities are encouraged to refer to the statistical monitoring mechanism of medium and long-term youth development plans, improve youth development statistics, establish and improve youth development monitoring databases, and explore and enrich digital application scenarios for youth development. Accelerate the construction of an objective, scientific and well-defined evaluation system for youth development-oriented cities, strengthen the policy advocacy and social advocacy functions of indicators, and conduct effective evaluations in a timely manner.

4. Strengthen policy support. All member units of the inter-ministerial joint meeting and all participating units in the division of planning tasks shall, in accordance with their own functions, actively support the pilot project of building a youth development-oriented city. Local governments that carry out pilot projects for youth development-oriented cities should improve policies, make up for shortcomings, coordinate relevant transfer payment funds and their own financial resources from the central government, and explore the implementation of inclusive youth livelihood projects through government purchases of services. There is perception and belonging to the city.

5. Create good atmospheres. Vigorously publicize General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thoughts on youth work, the Party and the state's strategic deployment on youth development, and publicize the idea that caring and supporting youth development is to enhance the vitality of urban development and accumulate urban development stamina. Encourage localities to refine the concept of a youth development-oriented city with urban characteristics, create an urban atmosphere, and build a city brand. Promote the theoretical research on youth development-oriented cities with the help of expert think tanks.

Source:<http://www.planning.org.cn/news/view?id=12423&cid=12>

Translated by Wang Yue