Senior Diplomat says urbanization will speed up

Jiang Xiaoyan, spokeswoman for China's mission to the European Union (EU), addresses the China-EU urbanization roundtable organized by China Europa Forum on Thursday in Brussels. [Photo by Fu Jing / chinadaily.com.cn]

A senior Chinese diplomat said the country will speed up urbanization so that by 2020 cities will not be concerned about pollution, traffic jam, housing and healthcare.

Jiang Xiaoyan, spokeswoman for China's mission to the European Union (EU), said on Thursday that China aims to raise its urbanization rate to 60 percent by 2020 from around 50 percent now.

"We are trying to ensure that all the citizens can enjoy the convenience of urbanization and do not have to worry about pollution, traffic jams, unaffordable housing and insufficient health care," she said during her address to an urbanization roundtable in Brussels organized by the China Europa Forum.

Jiang said that in 10 years China will provide urban "hukou" to 100 million migrant workers, rebuild slum housing in cities for 100 million people and help 100 million more peasant farmers settle in small cities in the west and central regions of China.

"These goals are ambitious but there remain daunting challenges ahead. It is a battle that China can no longer win alone," said Jiang, counselor in charge of press for the Chinese mission to the EU.

Jiang said sustainable urbanization has already become an integral part of China-EU cooperation. In the 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation released during the 16th China-EU Summit last year, urbanization is listed as a priority for cooperation between the two strategic partners.

With a 40-year long relationship strengthening, Jiang said China and the EU can leverage many established platforms - including the China-EU Urbanization Partnership Forum, the Mayors' Forum and the City Expo - to broaden cooperation for tangible results.

She said urbanization is also vital for China's development, noting that for each 1 percentage point of increase in the urbanization rate, 0.4 percent of growth in GDP will be generated.

"Accelerating urbanization will definitely further unleash tremendous vitality in Chinese economy, and in the end raise the well-being of the Chinese people," said Jiang.