East Asia should foster sustainable urbanization: World Bank

Policymakers should aim at economically efficient and sustainable urbanization in East Asia, the World Bank said on Monday.

While urbanization in the region is largely driven by market forces, policymakers at the national and municipal levels have an important role to play in ensuring that the process is sustainable and inclusive, the World Bank said in a report titled "East Asia's Changing Urban Landscape: Measuring a Decade of Spatial Growth."

Policymakers in East Asia can foster economically efficient urbanization by "addressing the entire system of cities through national urbanization strategies, (and) supporting public investments in a range of large, small and medium-sized cities to foster diverse economic activity," the global lender said.

They can foster sustainable urbanization by "ensuring high-density urban areas are well located, planned and coordinated to produce a walkable, livable environment," it added.

Almost 200 million people moved to urban areas in East Asia between 2000 and 2010, noted the report.

For the first time, the data compare urban areas and their populations in a consistent manner across East Asia, providing governments and local leaders with a better understanding of the shape and scale of urbanization.

"We're releasing this data so urban leaders can get a better picture and take action to ensure that urban growth benefits the increasing number of people moving to cities, especially the poor," said Axel van Trotsenburg, the World Bank East Asia and Pacific Regional Vice President.

Urban land area in East Asia expanded at an average of 2.4 percent per year during the decade studied, and urban populations grew even faster at an annual average rate of 3 percent, increasing to 778 million in 2010--the largest urban population of any region in the world, according to the report.

There are 869 urban areas with more than 100,000 people in the East Asia region, including eight megacities of more than 10 million people such as Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo, it added. Endi