Expanding cities to drive the economy
Source: Shanghai Daily |
March 7, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
China's planned urbanization drive will be the main engine of growth in domestic economic activity in the years ahead, giving the government scope to boost domestic demand and infrastructure investment, a senior planning official said yesterday.
China plans to spend 40 trillion yuan (US$6.4 trillion) to bring 400 million people to cities over the next decade as the government seeks economic growth generated by domestic consumption.
"Urbanization is the biggest potential force driving China's domestic demand in the years ahead," Zhang Ping, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters.
Guidelines for urbanization would be launched during the first half of this year, Zhang said on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing.
"We need to pay more attention to the quality of urbanization and align the process with China's environmental capability and resources," Zhang said.
The government hopes 60 percent of the population will be urban residents by 2020.
The NDRC's annual report to the legislature said China's urbanization rate would climb to 53.37 percent this year, up from 52.57 percent in 2012.
On Tuesday, Premier Wen Jiabao said consumption was key to unlocking the potential of domestic demand and would reduce excess, inefficiency and inequality.
It would also help deliver growth of 7.5 percent in 2013 - a level China barely beat in 2012 when growth was the slowest, 7.8 percent, in 13 years.
Urbanization is a policy priority for the government which wants to create a true consumer class that will help rebalance growth drivers away from the investment-heavy, export-oriented model.
The factory-fueled, breakneck economic expansion that has lifted hundreds of millions from rural poverty has also led to misallocation of resources, massive industrial inefficiency and exacerbated pollution.
Zhang said China would continue to push forward with economic reforms to clarify the different roles the government and markets played.
He restated government pledges to carry out reforms, including fiscal, financial, pricing and income distribution reform, but gave no further details.
Zhang said China's longer-term strategy remained focused on boosting consumption.
China may borrow from overseas experience to finance its massive urbanization over the next decades through asset securitization and municipal bonds in addition to bank loans, central banker Zhou Xiaochuan said yesterday.
"It's fair to say that many overseas financial instruments can be applied to China's urbanization, especially in term of the construction of infrastructure facilities and public utilities," said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China.
China plans to spend 40 trillion yuan (US$6.4 trillion) to bring 400 million people to cities over the next decade as the government seeks economic growth generated by domestic consumption.
"Urbanization is the biggest potential force driving China's domestic demand in the years ahead," Zhang Ping, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters.
Guidelines for urbanization would be launched during the first half of this year, Zhang said on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing.
"We need to pay more attention to the quality of urbanization and align the process with China's environmental capability and resources," Zhang said.
The government hopes 60 percent of the population will be urban residents by 2020.
The NDRC's annual report to the legislature said China's urbanization rate would climb to 53.37 percent this year, up from 52.57 percent in 2012.
On Tuesday, Premier Wen Jiabao said consumption was key to unlocking the potential of domestic demand and would reduce excess, inefficiency and inequality.
It would also help deliver growth of 7.5 percent in 2013 - a level China barely beat in 2012 when growth was the slowest, 7.8 percent, in 13 years.
Urbanization is a policy priority for the government which wants to create a true consumer class that will help rebalance growth drivers away from the investment-heavy, export-oriented model.
The factory-fueled, breakneck economic expansion that has lifted hundreds of millions from rural poverty has also led to misallocation of resources, massive industrial inefficiency and exacerbated pollution.
Zhang said China would continue to push forward with economic reforms to clarify the different roles the government and markets played.
He restated government pledges to carry out reforms, including fiscal, financial, pricing and income distribution reform, but gave no further details.
Zhang said China's longer-term strategy remained focused on boosting consumption.
China may borrow from overseas experience to finance its massive urbanization over the next decades through asset securitization and municipal bonds in addition to bank loans, central banker Zhou Xiaochuan said yesterday.
"It's fair to say that many overseas financial instruments can be applied to China's urbanization, especially in term of the construction of infrastructure facilities and public utilities," said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China.
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