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China's Urbanization Rate Reaches 36 Percent: Minister
China's urbanization rate has grown to 36.09 percent in its effort to set up an integrated and rational urban system with the emphasis on the development of small cities and towns, Construction Minister Yu Zhengsheng said Wednesday.
China has placed the improvement of housing construction and human settlements at the top of its development agenda, by expanding reform dimensions and increasing financial inputs, Yu told the U.N. General Assembly's special session on human settlements being held in New York.
The three-day session, which opened Wednesday, will review the implementation of the agenda set at the second U.N. conference on human settlements (Habitat II) in Istanbul in 1996 and will seek to formulate new initiatives for the purpose. Habitat II calls for adequate shelter for all and sustainable development of human settlements.
In the past 5 years, Yu said, China has constructed some 6.47 billion square meters of housing, with per capita floor area in the urban region reaching 20 square meters, surpassing the target set in the 1996 national report.
China has remarkably improved urban environment by intensifying ecological construction, Yu said, adding that it has also speeded up development of urban infrastructure such as transportation, water and heating supply, sewerage and solid water disposal, electric and telecommunication networks.
The minister said China sees economic development and poverty eradication essential for the fundamental solution of human settlement issue in a developing country.
He called on the international community, especially developed countries to show political will in bringing about a favorable international environment for the economic and social development of developing countries, in a way to strengthen their capacity to fulfill the human settlement task.
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