Authorities must plan for a city's sustainable development to avoid problems such as pollution and poor public security, said Li Youwei, member of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top advisory body.

Li made the remarks at the second plenary meeting of the ongoing first session of the 10th National Committee of the CPPCC over the weekend. Thirteen committee members aired their views on issues ranging from economic growth and urbanization to environmental protection.

Li said that, compared with towns, cities are able to absorb more surplus rural laborers.

Cities have more capacity to create jobs in service industries for rural laborers and to provide better education, he said.

China has entered a period of rapid urbanization, with experts predicting that 1.12 billion people - or 70 percent of the total population - will live in cities by 2050. More than 600 million Chinese people will shift from rural to urban areas in the next 50 years.

By then, China will have 50 major cities, each with a population of more than 2 million, 150 large cities, 500 medium-sized cities and 1,500 small ones.

At present, China has more than 660 cities and 19,000 towns and its urbanization rate stands at 36 percent.

Li said there was an urgent need to better manage China's urban infrastructure projects in order to reduce duplication in construction.

Zhu Shuhao, also a CPPCC member, said the development of labor-intensive industries, such as agricultural products processing, tourism, service and manufacturing industries, was a practical way of creating jobs.

"The employment of rural laborers should be at the top of the agenda," Zhu said.

Statistics indicate that China's farm workers return about 100 billion yuan (US$12.1 billion) in income to their hometowns each year. As the economy develops, the number of migrant laborers will also inevitably rise.

Zhu suggested that small satellite cities or towns, based on leading industries such as sports, entertainment or tourism sectors, should develop around big cities.

Experts predicted that 7-8 million rural surplus laborers will be absorbed by small cities and towns each year in the future.

(China Daily March 10, 2003)