The central and local governments have been taking a practical stance in turning more rural residents into urban dwellers through the building of smaller cities and towns as part of its urbanization drive.

An official with the Ministry of Construction yesterday said that it is listing some 2,000 towns across the country as "key towns" in the country's effort to develop grass- roots economies and create jobs for the surplus labor force in rural areas.

"The listing is meant to encourage local governments to focus their resources on a few small cities and towns that are relatively strong in economic development and have real promise to grow into larger cities," said Li Xiaolong, an official with the Urban and Rural Planning Department of the Ministry of Construction.

The latest statistics show the country has a total of 20,600 towns now. If the village level townships are also included, the number rises to more than 60,000.

"But only a few of them are really doing well," said Li. "That is why we need to focus our efforts on the smaller number of towns that have the real potential to grow into larger cities."

Key towns will enjoy preferential policies in areas such as land use, construction, financing and even social securities. The exact work will be left to provincial governments, which will have varied policies according to their respective situations.

For two decades, the country has been pursuing an urbanization policy that limits the growth of large cities but fosters smaller cities and towns. The reason, urban planners said, is because the big cities are already too crowded to accommodate more laborers.

But critics said the administrative order to build small towns is a waste of time and money, because the natural result of a market economy will see rural laborers flocking to big cities instead of entering nearby towns as the government hoped.

"The campaigns to build small cities and towns are often favored by local officials who are merely trying to make political achievements," said Hu Dongyu, director of the academic exchange department in China Urban Science Research Society.

Having realized the problems during the process of urbanization, all levels of government are adjusting their strategies.

"We will not only focus on the building of towns and cities, but also a balanced development of large and medium-sized cities," said Li.

(China Daily December 3, 2003)