China's grand urbanization plan

I can here mention Pakistan's southern metropolis and commercial capital Karachi. This city of more than 18 million people is a headache for the government as it has failed to tackle issues mentioned above. Consequently, gangs have sprung up and some areas of the city are currently no-go areas for police and other law enforcing agencies. A huge amount of money is lost due to corruption and crimes every day.

China's urbanization plan has two important prongs to it: "human-centered" and "environmentally friendly." These two small phrases are burdened with much significance. Imagine efforts to control the smog in Beijing and similar issues in some other cities. Paris last week put limits on the use of personal cars to control its pollution rates. China will have to make a super-human effort to transform its plan into a "human and eco-friendly" reality.

One important aspect of the new-type plan is that it is driven by domestic needs. The document says that "domestic demand is the fundamental impetus for China's development, and the greatest potential for expanding domestic demand lies in urbanization." Chinese officials have completed their calculations and now believe that that the urban proportion of the population will increase to 60 percent by 2020 and will help 100 million migrant workers and other permanent urban residents to obtain "urbanite" status.

The plan puts a lot of emphasis on communication and a regular railway and additional expressways will connect all cities with more than 200,000 residents by 2020. A high-speed rail will connect those with more than 500,000 residents. Civil aviation services will be expanded to cover some 90 percent of population. This also means a greater investment in infrastructure, which can in turn provide impetus for economic growth and more employment for both skilled and unskilled youth.

The plan, if implemented carefully, would multiply income opportunities for both rich and poor by providing direct and indirect jobs and reviving dozens of industries linked to construction. It would fulfill the objective of creating a domestic consumer base for Chinese products and a system of growth based on the national factors. It will also help million of people contribute to development and get their piece of the economic growth pie.

The writer is a Pakistani journalist and analyst.