The two-day Central Urban Work Conference has just wrapped up in Beijing, setting the tone for the future urban development of the country. China will make efforts to upgrade city clusters in the eastern region, and foster a batch of city clusters and key regional cities in the central and western regions.
Ten new megacities are expected to be built to ease the traffic congestion in current core urban areas. Some top economic planners suggest that new megacities could be based on existing urban hubs, citing the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area as an example.
Household registration system reform will be continued, in order to turn more migrant workers into city residents with supportive polices in education, employment and medical care.
Leaders at the meeting pointed out that safety should be the highest priority in city development and management, and shanty town renovation work should be basically finished by 2020.