Seminar held on high quality urban development

A seminar on high quality development of Chinese cities was held in Beijing on June 11.

Co-organized by China Internet Information Center (China.org.cn) and Cloud River Urban Research Institute, the event was attended by government officials, economists, and opinion leaders.

Yang Weimin, vice chairman of the Economic Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC, said high quality urbanization rests on the balanced development of the economy, the people,  resources and the environment. 

He said China should further relax restrictions on its household registration (hukou) system, improve the rural collective ownership system for construction land, increase land supply for residential use, and coordinate infrastructure development, environmental protection, tourism, energy use, and big data sharing within a megalopolis or urban complex. 

In February, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner, published a guideline on promoting urban complex development to optimize structural balance between population and economic growth, as well as to boost investment and consumption.

Zhou Muzhi, head of the Cloud River Urban Research Institute, said the guideline aims to optimize urban development in densely populated areas and promote coordinated development of a metropolitan city and its surrounding cities.

During the seminar, Zhou also unveiled a report, compiled by the Cloud River Urban Research Institute, on the development index of major Chinese cities and urban complex in 2018.

According to the report, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are among the top three in the development index ranking and in several other rankings on key indicators like economic scale, quality development, and business concentration.