Cities should be ‘denser, not larger’
Print Edition
CHINA should allow market forces to play a bigger role in its urbanization process, systematically changing the way of allocating land, people and capital to better tackle environmental degradation and other problems, the World Bank said yesterday.
“Building denser cities, rather than larger cities, will help China cut down on traffic congestion, air and water pollution, as well as the maintenance costs for infrastructure services,” the bank said in a report produced in conjunction with the Chinese government’s Development Research Center.
“With more efficient, denser cities, China can save some US$1.4 trillion in infrastructure spending, or 15 percent of China’s GDP last year. It also will help preserve the amount of farmland still available, currently close to the red line considered the minimum needed to ensure food security,” the report said.
“Cities may need temporary subsidies to help them transition from the household registration system to one based on residency, allowing them to eventually provide 260 million migrants basic public services,” according to the report, which also urged the enforcement of existing environmental laws, the regulation of local government debt, and called on cities to be encouraged to generate more revenue through measures such as taxes on property and vehicles.
The report, prepared over the past 14 months, aims to provide a basis for the formulation of policies on China’s new model of urbanization.
Premier Li Keqiang has said urbanization will be a strong impetus for economic growth, and that the country still had massive potential for further urbanization.
Axel van Trotsenburg, vice president of World Bank East Asia and Pacific region, said reforms suggested in the report will give China the necessary tools to move toward efficient, inclusive and sustainable urbanization. “The proposed reforms will accelerate the shift of industry to secondary cities in China, reduce the migration pressure on large cities, and eventually lead to higher wages for its citizens and more equitable growth,” Trotsenburg said.
China plans to increase the proportion of urban residents in its population to 60 percent by 2020, up from today’s 53.7 percent. This fits in with the plan to turn the economy into a more consumption-driven model rather than one driven by investment and exports.
Last week, China said it was planning a major expansion of transport and infrastructure to propel urbanization.
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