China should pursue 'high-quality' urbanization: top economic planning body

[jakeXT]

(Reuters) - China must plan scientifically for "high-quality" urbanization that is human-oriented and energy-saving, a senior official at the country's top economic planning agency said in remarks published on Thursday.

China's leaders have an ambitious plan to boost the urban population by 400 million over the next decade, a key plank in a reform effort to restructure the economy away from credit and export growth to one where consumers provide the main impetus.

Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice head of the National Development and Reform Commission, also said China's urbanization level, at about 52 percent of the population, still has a long way to catch up with that of developed economies and even some Asian countries.

"Our urbanization should embody the concepts of green, intensive, intelligent and low-carbon and it does not mean simply building things or enclosing land," he said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in the northeastern port city of Dalian that was posted on the NDRC's website.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/12/us-china-economy-urbanisation-idUSBRE98B02720130912