International Symposium on China's Rural economy after WTO: Problems and Strategies

Call for Papers

You are cordially invited to submit abstracts of your papers to an International Symposium on China's Rural economy after WTO: Problems and Strategies.

Organizers: The Chinese Economists Society (CES)

Zhejiang University

TIME: June 25-27, 2004

LOCATION: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Significance:

For scholars and policy makers interested in how economic growth affects human welfare, it is hard to think of anything more important than rural development in China. In 2001, China had a rural population of 796 million and rural employment of 491 million, accounting for 62 percent and 67 percent of China's total population and employment, respectively. It is fair to say that China couldn't reach its goal of building a well-off society without restructuring its agriculture sector, modernizing rural areas, and improving farmers' welfare.

Over the past two and half decades, China has experienced the highest economic growth rate in the world. The growth processes started from the rural sector with the Household Responsibility System to the urban sector with various reforms including the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reform. An important force for pushing the SOE reform has been the emergence and amazing growth of the township and village enterprises (TVEs). Thus, rural reforms, plus the rural-to-urban migration, have been engines of China's overall economic growth.

Unfortunately, the gains of economic growth have not been fairly shared among sectors and regions. China's rural economy still faces many serious problems and challenges. How can China design better policies to buffer the shocks to farmers and the agricultural sector from globalization and industrialization? What changes should China make to help farmers smoothly migrate to non-farm sectors? How could China improve the size and efficiency of public finance to rural areas? The objective of the CES annual conference is to provide a forum for constructive discussions on these pressing issues.

Topics for Discussion:

- Poverty and inequality

- Rural labor force transformation

- Discrimination against rural workers and labor protection for rural migrants

- Reform of the Hukou system

- Urban-rural divide

- Rural governance

- Status of women in the rural sector

- Taxes, fees, and levies on farmers

- Rural public investment and infrastructure in rural areas

- WTO and rural development

- International competitiveness of agricultural products

- Rural industrialization

- Foreign direct investment in agriculture

- Credits and banking in rural areas

- Rural private credit cooperatives

- Education in rural areas

- Rural medical care and health insurance

- Social protection for landless farmers

- Village democracy

- Rural environment protection

- Development in lagging and minority regions

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Please send an extended abstract (500-1,000 words, with four key words) of your paper no later than December 15, 2003 to Shunfeng Song at song@unr.nevada.edu. Please use "Hangzhou Conference" as the subject of your emails. The cover page should include your paper title, name, mailing address, phone number(s), and email address. The second page should provide the title and abstract of your paper, with no name indicated.

SELECTION AND NOTIFICATION

The Conference Academic Committee (consisting of four Board Directors) will select qualified papers through an anonymous process. Successful authors will be notified by January 15, 2004. The deadline for submitting completed papers is May 15, 2004.

EXPENSES AND SUBSIDIES

Participants are required to register for the conference with a registration fee of US$50. The conference sponsors will cover local accommodation during the conference for paper presenters. The CES will provide one presenter of each paper with a limited amount of international travel subsidy.