The level of urbanization in China increase 0.9 percent per year

Sources from the seminar on "China and Vietnam's Urban Planning and Management" held in Nanning, Guangxi province, stated that by the end of 2006, the population of this town in China had reached 577 million, with a 43.9 percent level of urbanization. During the twenty-six years between 1980 and 2006, the level of urbanization in China increased on average by 0.9 percent per year. Nearly 10 million people from the rural population transferred to urban areas each year.

According to the "China Business Times", Li Feng, regional director of the Urban and Rural Planning Department under the Ministry of the Construction of China, predicted that within the next fifteen to twenty years, the level of urbanization in China will maintain an average of 0.8 percent of growth each year. Li Feng said at the seminar that, along with the process of industrialization, information exchange, automation and the new status quo; the new tasks of social restructuring, structural adjustment and the contradictions of Chinese urban development will be more prominent. These issues will become more complex and the pressure on environmental resources will also increase. Therefore, taking the path of resource conservation and friendliness towards the environment, intense and compact urban development is necessary for China' continual national development.

By People's Daily Online