Seminar held to explore China’s new-type of urbanization

Zhou Muzhi, professor of Tokyo Keizai University. [China.org.cn]

A seminar on China Integrated City Index 2016, with its theme of Big Pattern, Big Data and Big Analytics, was held in Beijing on Dec. 27, attracting experts from home and abroad to meet here to work out ways for China’s new-type of urbanization.

China Integrated City Index 2016, a book issued by the People’s Publishing House on Nov. 28, was jointly compiled by the Cloud River Urban Research Institute and the Department of Development Planning of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Based on the new vision of development, China Integrated City Index, the first authoritative, comprehensive and practical study of its kind, aims to analyze and evaluate the sustainable development of Chinese cities with indicators.

Tuesday’s seminar, with focus on this recently-published book, provides a platform for experts and scholars to explore ways for China’s urbanization in the future, including how to develop Chinese cities with big data and pursue high-quality urban development.

Xu Lin, director of the Department of Development Planning of the NDRC, Hu Cunzhi, former vice minister of land and resources, Du Ping, executive vice director of the State Information Center of China, Zhou Qiren, professor of the National School of Development at Peking University, and Zhou Muzhi, professor of Tokyo Keizai University delivered speeches respectively at the seminar, making interpretations and suggestions for human-centered urbanization advocated by the Central Economic Work Conference held earlier this month.

As one of the two lead authors of China Integrated City Index 2016, Professor Zhou Muzhi elaborated on the significance and characteristics of the book during his speech, and demonstrated how to use it to make analysis on Chinese cities from the multidimensional perspective.

“This book is expected to help Chinese cities improve the ability to hold their current conditions, learn advanced experience and ideas, and draw up a development strategy and overall plan, hence making contributions to the improvement of their vitality, charm and competence,” Zhou said.

Based on the analysis in the book, seminar participants also held further discussions on the development of urbanization from the perspective of the environment and population density, giving advice on how to build safe, ecological and low-carbon urban society.

The seminar was co-hosted by the Department of Development Planning of the NDRC, Xinhuanet, the People’s Publishing House and the Cloud River Urban Research Institute.


The article was published on China Net on Dec 30, 2016, and was republished by foreign mediaas well as today’s headlines and other platforms.