Millions of apartments to be built
Print Edition
China’s State Council has announced plans to build 18 million apartments in urban areas and renovate dilapidated houses for 10.6 million households.
The plans also include infrastructure for transport, communications, water, natural gas and heating, according to a meeting earlier this week chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
Governments should channel more money into renovation projects and attract private investment to support the projects, the meeting decided.
Given the economic downturn in the world’s second largest economy, policy-makers hope that urbanization will help revive sluggish investment, stimulate domestic demand and provide sustainable impetus to economic growth.
Li Shantong, of the State Council’s Development Research Center said there was a huge and growing demand for infrastructure during urbanization, which will “continue to drive economic growth in the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).”
There were 749.16 million urban inhabitants by the end of 2014, making up 54.77 percent of the total population.
The ratio, up from 26.41 percent in 1990, was still markedly lower than in developed countries, indicating much room for improvement.
Liu Hongyu, vice president of Tsinghua University’s School of Civil Engineering, believes China’s urbanization is still on a fast track and expects the permanent resident population of cities to grow by 15 million each year from now to 2030.
In addition, the renovation program aims to improve people’s livelihoods.
“This work concerns millions of impoverished families, thus, requires bolder steps,” the State Council said after the meeting.
Chen Zhenggao, minister of housing and urban-rural development, has ordered swift and extensive renovation of buildings that are safety hazards, after a number of recent building collapses.
Local governments have been urged to prioritize dangerous buildings in the renovation scheme and provide financial aid.
Building collapses in southwest China’s Guizhou Province and north China’s Tianjin recently have killed dozens of people.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
