New urbanization outline ready: report

China's new urbanization outline will peg the expansion of urban land for construction to the number of farmers a city absorbed, a new method that aims to address the tension between surging urban land demand and farm land area.

Economic Information, a newspaper affiliated with the official Xinhua News Agency, said on Tuesday that an outline of the new urbanization plan, which is expected to roll out during March's National People's Congress, has been finished, citing anonymous sources.

The outline, co-drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Land and Resources and several other ministries, will establish a mechanism that links area for "new land for building purposes" with the number of farmers a city absorbed.

To protect China's arable land from erosion stemming from urban construction, China has strict quotas for "new land for building purposes". Farmland and forestland cannot be developed as "new land for building purposes" unless allowed by the central government.

But this has created enormous pressure for local governments as the rapid urbanization process has boosted demand for land for building purposes, which under current quotas could not be met.

Experts said the new scheme could create an incentive for local governments to turn more migrant workers into urban residents.