Get systems ready to ease urbanization throes

Just like the rural residents Chen Huansheng and Grandma Liu, who are described in Chinese literary works Chen Huan Sheng Shang Cheng and A Dream in Red Mansions, when rural residents migrate to cities, they have the same survival pressures.

If a society maintains a mature public service system, then the migrants will feel satisfied that they profit from the system and the process of urbanization will be implemented smoothly.

So the system that forms during the process of urbanization will be built up involuntary.

However, if public service is not well organized, different kinds of social problems will gradually pop up when the rural migrants crowd into cities, such as housing, school admissions, transformations of the household registration system, how to profit from the subsistence allowance for low income groups, and how to implement the Pension Policy.

So I think we should focus on these problems while driving urbanization.

China Daily: You just mentioned five working goals of urbanization, so how does Ning Xia carry out these goals?

Wang Heshan: Actually, in terms of Ning Xia's local urbanization, Ning Xia is not very big and it is about 60 thousand square kilometers, with over 6 million residents, with 50 percent living in cities. So how can we develop our urbanization in Ning Xia Hui autonomous region?

We call the process ‘Three Steps' or ‘Three Modules'.

The first step is the biggest one, and is built along the Yellow River. We call it the Yellow River City Developing Zone. It means we simultaneously develop the riverfront areas of over ten different sized cities and counties that reach a length of 397 kilometer.

Industrial and human resources development are focused on in this area. We built and reshaped this area in different fields and from different aspects to create an industrial belt.

Secondly, there is a destitute area in Ning Xia, and maybe it is already well known among people, it is called Xi Hai Gu. The people in Xi Hai Gu still need a better life and enjoy moderate prosperity. So Xi Hai Gu also needs urbanization, what we have done about this?

Three years ago, we planned and built Gu Yuan Regional Hub City and the Grand County project. I am not sure if you have ever been to Gu Yuan before, it is in the delta region between Xi'an, Lanzhou and Yinchuan. So it is in the centre zone of this area. That's why we call it the construction of Gu Yuan Regional Hub City.

It promotes and upgrades the area's infrastructure construction to a higher level, so it will help the rural residents shake off poverty and become prosperous and it also solves urbanization's infrastructure construction shortage problem in the nearby cities.

The government should guide and encourage the promotion of these areas' urbanization with higher quality and at a faster rate. These are all within our second module.

Thirdly, we have paid a lot of attention to the development of small towns. To be honest, back to China, we have already built many different sized cities. So with such a city layout, a structure that includes big cities, middle sized cities and small cities should be adequately taken into consideration. In my opinion, I think the most important issue is that small town construction needs to be highly promoted and it is very meaningful to China's urbanization. Why?

Because China has such a huge population with over 1.3 billion people, many cities are even bigger than some countries in the world. So it is very important to coordinate the three level structure. For example, in 2020, the urbanization rate of China will reach 60 percent. The layout of cities should be constructed very harmoniously, so other issues related to urbanization will run smoothly.

Adjusting the cities' layouts and optimizing them, and increasing the construction of small towns, might play a great role in the urbanization process in China.

So we have implemented a policy since this year, it stipulates that two small towns will be built each year for each county. By following the increasing rate, how many small towns will be built within one year? We have 22 counties right now, so more than 40 towns will be constructed in one year.

By gradually promoting this policy, all kinds of resources will available in small towns, in counties, in cities like Yinchuan.

Finally, a reasonable urbanization pattern will be established and by following the pattern, the construction of urbanization will be built. In terms of Ningxia, I think by following this development pattern, it is an effective and reasonable way, and it also suits the developing conditions in Ningxia.