Events and sights for tourists

Seizing the new opportunities of China’s urbanisation

While China has entered the mid to late stages of its urbanisation process, urbanisation maintains a strong driving force for China’s economic and social development, yielding tremendous opportunities and potential for growth. In 2019, for the first time, the urbanisation rate of China’s permanent population exceeded 60 percent, which is expected to approach the average level of developed countries in the next 20 years. However, the urbanisation rate of the registered population is currently below 45 percent. Continuous promotion of a new type of “people-centric urbanisation” will help narrow the gap between the economic and social development of urban and rural areas, extensively improve public services and social welfare, and provide internal impetus for robust economic growth. Moreover, since the start of the 21st century, a number of super-large urban clusters have emerged in the process of China’s rapid urbanisation. Industrial agglomeration has proven to be a robust driver for economic growth, and urban clusters have become the most important centres for bolstering economic growth.

At present, the world is undergoing a period of great change unseen in a hundred years, and the development of cities plays a crucial role in addressing these challenges and seizing historic opportunities. Research by the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) indicates that both the global and Chinese economy are being severely tested by the rise of competition among the major powers as well as anti-globalisation and economic nationalist sentiment. Yet China’s large urban centres have continued to witness higher-than-average growth throughout this process. The unexpected COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 has posed a monumental challenge to urban development and governance, with large cities serving as the main battlefield in this crisis. But under the strong leadership of the Chinese government and the joint efforts of society as a whole, China has managed to control the epidemic relatively well, with the solid infrastructure of major cities, widespread application of information technologies, precise and efficient community management, extensive participation from social organisations, as well as an elevated sense of civic duty playing a crucial role in responding to the epidemic-driven crisis. All this has shown that cities, particularly large cities and urban clusters, possess strong resilience and excellent restorative capabilities in responding to crises.

As President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee,

stressed, China must gradually form a “dual circulation” development pattern, in which the domestic economic cycle plays a leading role while the domestic and international dual circulations complement each other.

This “dual circulation” not only demonstrates a logic of ensuring bottom-line security by improving economic resilience, but also a logic of expanding opening-up and integrated development with an enterprising spirit. In the process of developing a “dual circulation” pattern, cities—especially central cities—will play a leading role as platforms for growth and opening-up as well as pillars of resilience—veritable places of opportunity.

The China Development Research Foundation and PwC have paid close attention to China’s urbanisation, with the Cities of Opportunity series of reports representing the key results of research. Since 2014, Chinese Cities of Opportunity has published seven consecutive issues. The report draws on the research perspective and analytical framework of PwC’s Cities of Opportunity, while closely tracking the country’s overall development strategy and creating an urban development evaluation index that’s suited for the Chinese context in terms of the economy, society and people’s livelihoods. Since its publication, the Cities of Opportunity series of reports have had wide-ranging social impact while receiving widespread attention from business and academic circles, and city governments of all levels.

The number of cities in this year’s report has risen to 42, encompassing most provincial capital cities as well as key cities of comparable size and scale. In the selection of variables, we’ve placed more emphasis on the substance of high-quality urban development such as urban resilience, sustainable development, regional integrated development and refined urban management to reflect the core concerns of cities under the current new normal.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and admiration for PwC’s strong sense of social responsibility and the contribution of their insights to the development of China. I would also like to express my thanks to the PwC and CDRF teams for their efforts. Both sides are expected to continue this in-depth cooperation going forward and jointly contribute valuable insights to society.

Fang Jin

Secretary General of the China Development Research Foundation