China's Urbanization Must Be Sustainable and Livable

A new joint report released in China is suggesting that with around 70-percent of this country's population expected to live in an urban setting by 2030, this country's cities need to be more sustainable and liveable.

The Human Development Report has been co-published by the UN Development Program and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The report includes studies by a group of Chinese and international experts on the massive migration to urban areas here in China.

The report notes 52.6 percent of the people in this country lived in cities as of last year.

Today, over 710 million people in China live in cities and towns.

By 2030 that number is likely to surpass one billion.

One of the biggest challenges being cited in the new report is the rapidly aging population in China.

Helen Clark headed the UN team which helped compile the data.

"Obviously, this raises challenges on several facts. As urbanization increase in China, we face more pressure to ensure the efficient use of nature and energy resources and the development of its urban govern systems. It will want to ensure that there are jobs, the transports, the housing, the basic social services, the security of the urban citizens, and we want to protect the livelihoods of migrant workers. And we also will be the other challenges, relating to the aging population, the structure transformation of the economy, and the air and water pollution."

Pan Jiahua is with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the chief editor of the new report.

He says a new sustainable development plan is what's needed for the urban areas of China.

"In order to make the urban development more sustainable, the urban government, the enterprises and citizens should do their own efforts on various aspects, such as urban planning, urban management, and production and consumption behavior and so on. If we ignored this, the capacity of the environment is likely to further beyond bearing, this impact is not only the problem of unlivable, and it will affect the economic and social development."

The report also suggests the scale and speed of China's urbanization is expected to continue at its current pace for the next two decades.

National Development and Reform Commission deputy director Xie Zhenhua attended the ceremony.

He says development here in China needs to be quality, and not just fast.

"We need to be people-centered. It is more about the urbanization of the people. We need to gradually motivate the migration of rural population and fair distribution of public resources, and let rural and urban residents equally benefit from our economic growth."

Xie Zhenhua also says the NDRC is also focusing on urbanization as part of its latest development plans.