Expert Interpretation ｜ Driving the Modernization of Rural Governance with Digital Technology and Promoting the Efficiency of Public Services

Editor’s note:The "14th Five-Year Plan" period is the first five years to take advantage of the situation to start a new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and March towards the goal of the second century, and it is also the launching period for comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and building a digital China. Recently, the Central Network Information Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Market Supervision, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and the National Rural Revitalization Bureau, together with relevant departments, formulated the Digital Rural Development Action Plan (2022-2025) (hereinafter referred to as the Action Plan). The Action Plan puts forward the development goals, key tasks and safeguard measures of digital villages during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, and comprehensively deploys the work of digital villages. In order to make the community better understand the main contents of the Action Plan, the Central Network Information Office organized relevant experts and scholars to study and interpret the key tasks of the Action Plan, and jointly promoted the construction of digital villages to a new level.

Rural governance is the cornerstone of national governance, and public service is the foundation of economic and social stability. The level of rural governance and public service is directly related to the implementation of rural revitalization strategy and the production and life of rural farmers. The wide application of next-generation information technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence in agriculture and rural areas has driven profound changes in rural governance and improved the efficiency of public services. Recently, 10 departments, including the Central Network Information Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, jointly issued the Action Plan for the Development of Digital Villages (2022-2025) (hereinafter referred to as the Action Plan), proposing to implement two important actions, namely, the action to improve the digital governance capacity and the action to improve the efficiency of public services, which will play an important role in promoting the digitalization of rural governance during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period.

First, adhere to the problem-oriented, and provide digital solutions for improving rural governance capacity.

"Effective governance" is one of the five general requirements of rural revitalization, and it is also the foundation of rural revitalization. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has repeatedly stressed the need to consolidate the foundation of rural governance. In May 2019, the General Offices of the General Office of the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council jointly issued the Outline of Digital Rural Development Strategy, which made "promoting the modernization of rural governance capacity" one of the top ten key tasks. On this basis, the Action Plan further aims at and focuses on the key and difficult issues such as the "scattered" rural grassroots party organizations, the "heavy" burden of grassroots comprehensive management, and the "few" means of villagers’ autonomy, and puts forward the task of improving the ability of digital governance.

Improve the rural smart party building system and focus on solving the problem of "scattering" of grassroots party organizations.The party’s grass-roots organizations are the "backbone" of rural revitalization and the core force to strengthen and improve rural governance in the new era. By promoting the optimization and upgrading of the modern distance education system for cadres in party member, enriching the functions of the comprehensive platform for party building information, speeding up the "cloud" of grassroots party organizations, actively and steadily using the network platform, and promoting the online disclosure of party affairs, village affairs, finance and other information according to laws and regulations, the Action Plan closely combines grassroots party building with rural governance, and uses information technology to unite rural grassroots party member, thus solving the dilemma that rural grassroots party organizations are scattered and party member is highly mobile and difficult to manage.

Promote the refinement of comprehensive social management and focus on solving the problem of "heavy" burden of comprehensive management at the grassroots level.The lack of coordination among rural autonomy, rule of law and rule of virtue, and the disorderly operation of village-level organizations are the main bottlenecks that hinder the improvement of grassroots governance capacity. The Action Plan builds a "network" of grass-roots governance by promoting the gradual improvement of the service management mode of "internet plus Grid Governance", further promoting the integrated development of three platforms: public legal service network platform, entity platform and hotline platform, popularizing the use of intelligent mobile mediation system, and building a high-quality public safety video image application system, and actively enhancing the synergy of autonomy, rule of law and rule of virtue in rural governance.

Improve the intelligent level of village affairs management and focus on solving the problem of "less" means of farmers’ self-government.Farmers are the main force in rural governance. Only by adhering to the dominant position of farmers and fully respecting their wishes can rural governance be stable and far-reaching. The Action Plan further enriches the means of farmers’ self-government and smoothes the channels of public opinion expression by promoting the electronization of village-level basic accounts, establishing a unified comprehensive management service platform for "smart villages", promoting the "sunshine open" supervision and management platform for village-level affairs, promoting online deliberation and supervision of villagers, and accelerating the construction of the supervision and management platform for rural collective assets.

Second, adhere to key breakthroughs and take multiple measures to improve the supply capacity of public services.

Compared with cities, there is a big gap in the supply capacity of rural public services in China. Improving the efficiency of rural public services is the most direct embodiment of the effect of rural governance, and it is also an urgent practical problem to be solved at present. The Action Plan proposes actions to improve the efficiency of public services, focusing on the areas of people’s livelihood security such as education, medical care and social security services, giving full play to the enabling role of digital technology, striving to promote the equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas, and accelerating the improvement of people’s sense of acquisition, happiness and security.

Focus on the development of "Internet+Education".The Action Plan starts its task from three major aspects. First, by improving the interconnected, open, flexible, multi-level distribution, nationwide, co-governance, sharing and collaborative service of the national digital education resources public service system, we will deliver high-quality educational resources to rural students. The second is to improve the teaching level of rural teachers by in-depth training of their information technology application ability. The third is to develop agricultural teaching resources for key rural groups and promote rural workers’ employment and entrepreneurship.

Focus on the development of "Internet+medical health".The Action Plan starts its task from three angles. First, strengthen the informatization construction of rural health care institutions, promote the integration and application of information technology in rural basic medical care and public health services, and promote the improvement of county health information platforms. The second is to develop telemedicine in rural areas, establish a telemedicine private network covering county-level hospitals, promote the application of a unified national medical insurance information platform, and build a telemedicine collaborative system. The third is to promote the realization of the "full network operation" and "one network operation" of medical insurance government services, and further strengthen the health care security of farmers.

Focus on improving rural social security and employment services.The Action Plan steadily promotes the construction of public social security service platforms at the grass-roots level in towns and villages, promotes the popularization and application of electronic social security cards, establishes and improves a unified national comprehensive information system for migrant workers, strengthens the informatization construction of rural public employment services, and provides timely, effective and convenient employment information services for rural residents.

Focus on information service guarantee for rural special population.China’s rural areas are aging and hollowing out seriously. The construction of digital villages should ensure that special groups such as rural "three left-behind" personnel and disabled people do not fall behind, so that the broad masses of rural people can share the digital dividend. The Action Plan proposes to speed up the popularization and application of the national social assistance information system, strengthen the information management of the left-behind elderly in rural areas, develop "internet plus to help the disabled", and promote the inclusion of basic public services for the disabled in the "one network" platform for rural government services, which fully reflects the concern for special groups.

Focus on deepening rural inclusive finance service.In order to solve the problem of financing difficulties and slow loans for farmers and new agricultural business entities, the Action Plan proposes to guide agricultural financial institutions to improve farmers’ file rating and credit coverage, and guide banking financial institutions to conduct automatic approval based on big data and specific scenarios under the premise of legal compliance and risk control, so as to improve the efficiency of credit services.

Three, adhere to the people-oriented, build a system to serve all kinds of groups.

In the final analysis, rural governance and public services should fall on the masses. We should closely follow the difficulties and basic needs of various groups in rural areas in using digital technology, comprehensively use online and offline channels, build a system of benefiting the people, improve governance capacity and service efficiency, and truly achieve both speed, intensity, breadth and temperature.

First, combine online and offline services, and reserve the necessary offline service channels to facilitate the masses to do things.When promoting the digitalization of rural governance and public services, we should not be divorced from reality and blindly advance to avoid creating a new "digital divide." The Action Plan proposes to "expand the deployment scope of rural grass-roots convenience service centers and service stations, and promote the deep integration of online and offline". By combining online services and offline channels, it advocates that all regions should fully consider the living needs of different groups, retain basic public services, and provide traditional offline handling channels and consultation channels to provide villagers with on-site services such as door-to-door handling and entrusted agency.

The second is to create an information barrier-free environment and accelerate the aging and barrier-free transformation and upgrading.In our daily life, some elderly people who are lonely and disabled still don’t have the digital skills to work, study, live and prevent diseases online with smart devices. How to make different special groups in rural areas participate in rural governance and enjoy public services is an important topic. The Action Plan proposes to "guide all kinds of applications for the elderly, the disabled and other groups to carry out aging-adaptive and barrier-free transformation and upgrading", break down the barriers for special groups to obtain and use information services, and provide protection for groups with information barriers.

The third is to improve farmers’ digital literacy and skills and enhance the endogenous motivation of rural revitalization.At present, China’s existing administrative villages have 100% broadband access, the network coverage in rural and remote areas is gradually improved, and the pace of digital infrastructure construction is accelerated. Internet not only provides a display platform for rural areas, but also brings development opportunities. The level of digital literacy and skills of farmers will directly affect their willingness and ability to use digital resources continuously after "touching the net". The Action Plan actively advocates upgrading farmers’ digital skills, improving farmers’ ability to use digital "new farm tools" and promoting the extension of digital services and training to rural areas.(Author: China Institute of Information and Communication)