Tibet to Focus on 100 Small Towns to Expedite UrbanizationThe Tibet Autonomic Region will construct 100 small cities and towns centered on the Qinghai-Tibet, Sichuan-Tibet and China-Nepal roads and county towns in the coming five years, so as to promote rural urbanization and boost the development of the secondary and tertiary industries.It is reported that Tibet will construct small cities and towns in line with the market mechanism, pursue the principle of "one who invests gets benefits", and make unified plans; meanwhile, it will combine the construction of small cities and towns with the economic development of framing and pastoral areas, so as to turn small cities and towns into the circulating and trading centers for capital goods, means of livelihood, and farm and animal by-products. Tibet has112 organic towns, basically forming an urban network with Lhasa as the center, towns where the region is located as the second-level center, and county towns as well as big organic towns as the third-level center. However, as urban construction in Tibet is still in the initial stage, the region's urbanization level is only 9.8 percent. Except for the location of the region, infrastructures in most cities and towns are poor. Xu Mingyang, executive vice-chairman of the Tibet Autonomic Region, said that from now to the year 2005, Tibet will basically complete the framework, supply-drainage piping network as well as the urban comprehensive flood-control system for county towns and border trading port cities. Innocuous disposal of garbage has been realized in towns where prefecture, city and county are located, border trading port cities, towns with a population of over 4,000 each, key organic towns and industrial and mining areas. Xu predicts that over 60 percent of the urban residents of the region will be able to use liquefied gas by 2006; the problem of providing heating for residents will gradually be solved by 2008; by 2010, the housing renovation rate in the region's county towns and border trading port cities will reach 80 percent. By then, urban population of the region will reach about 780,000, and the urbanization level will hit 22 percent |
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