5. Carrying out a new type of people-centered urbanization

Urbanization is the sure route to modernization and an important basis for integrating the urban and rural structures. We must improve the system and mechanisms for integrating rural and urban development and embark on a new path of urbanization. This new type of urbanization should have the following features: putting people first; integrating the development of industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization; improving the spatial layout; protecting the ecological environment; and carrying forward Chinese culture.

We must follow the natural law concerning urbanization, carry it out actively and prudently, and work harder to raise its quality. For some time to come, we will focus on three tasks, each concerning 100 million people: granting urban residency to around 100 million rural people who have moved to cities, rebuilding rundown city areas and villages inside cities where around 100 million people live, and guiding the urbanization of around 100 million rural residents of the central and western regions in cities there.

We will grant urban residency in an orderly manner to rural people who have moved to cities.

We will reform the household registration system, and implement a household registration policy with different eligibility requirements for people of different conditions, and progressively grant urban residency to rural migrant workers and their families who are both willing and able to stay in cities and towns where they have had jobs or done business for a long time. We will introduce a residence permit system for rural people in urban areas who have not yet gained urban residency.

More children of rural migrant workers living with their parents in cities will be entitled to go to school there, including secondary school and college, and we will provide vocational skills training to rural migrant workers. We will steadily extend basic public services to fully cover the permanent population of cities and towns so that the rural people who live in them can contribute to the development of modern urban life and enjoy it together with the urban people.

We will increase support for a new type of urbanization in the central and western regions.

We will help their industries develop and attract people and encourage rural migrant workers in the two regions to find employment in local cities and towns. We will speed up development of infrastructure including transportation, water conservancy, energy and municipal services in the two regions and make development of city clusters and towns there more sustainable. We will also improve the structure of cities and towns in the eastern region and raise the quality and standard of urbanization there.

We will strengthen management innovation and institutional development pertaining to urbanization.

We will expand the rebuilding of rundown urban areas so that cities will take on a new look instead of having stretches of rundown areas existing side by side with high-rise buildings. We will make plans for urbanization in a coordinated way in accordance with the national guidelines for developing a new type of urbanization. We will use urban construction land more efficiently, give high priority to developing public transport, protect sites of historical and cultural interest and natural landscapes, and avoid making cities and towns all look the same.

We will strengthen planning management of villages and small towns. We will explore ways to share costs associated with granting urban residency to rural people who have moved to cities and diversify investment and financing for urban development. We will better develop and manage cities and towns so that they are livable and have unique features, good working conditions and more vitality.