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Urban development in western China may be pluralistic in form

Author  :  Zeng Jiang and Rao Jia     Source  :    Chinese Social Sciences Today     2016-11-28

The 16th Western China International Fair opened on Nov. 4 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

At the Urban Sustainable Development Forum during the fair, the Sichuan Urban Sustainable Development Report was jointly released by the United Nations Development Programme, the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) and some other research institutes in China.

According to the report, urban development in western China faces four major difficulties: First, cities in western China face the problem of resource depletion even when they are economically underdeveloped. Secondly, these cities are unable to provide enough and qualified necessary public goods to meet the needs of an increasing population.

Third, the development of cities in western China in terms of system, arrangement and scale is voluntary rather than scientifically planned. Last of all, the low level of education in most cities in western China has rendered them incapable of acting as the centers for knowledge and innovation, according to the report.

Judging from the actual situation and developmental stage, urban sustainable development in western China should address the relationship between human development and the environment through the platform of cities, said Zhang Mingming, deputy director of the Regional Economy Research Institute under the SASS.

Sustainable development emphasizes both the comprehensive development of individuals and common progress of humanity as a whole, Zhang said. At the same time, it stresses both the highly efficient exploitation of resources and expansion of the environmental capacity to support both the population and the economy, he said.

Urban sustainable development in Sichuan takes multiple forms that are appropriate to the development stage of each city, taking into account the resource endowment a city has and various other factors, Zhang said.

The way and policy for a city to develop should be chosen based on reflections on the current modes, and its difficulties and degree of deviation from the ultimate goal of sustainable development, Zhang said, adding small counties, in particular, should be encouraged to take an innovative path to development based on their individual geographical, ecological and industrial features.

Editor: Yu Hui

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