Migration from China’s countryside to cities to be a key factor in resource allocation

China has pledged to make consideration of population movements a priority when allocating resources as it grapples with the twin demands of deepening urbanisation and invigorating rural areas.

Local authorities should “adapt to the trend of population changes” when mapping out rural planning and construction, according to the annual national rural work conference, which convened on Wednesday, as the migration of rural residents to cities becomes a policy focus to drive flagging economic growth.

The instruction came after the government invested heavily in building infrastructure in the countryside to narrow the vast urban-rural development gap under President Xi Jinping’s rural revitalisation initiative, only to see much of that infrastructure left idle as people continued moving to urban areas.

Officials should consider the “organic combination” of the rural revitalisation mission with China’s new round of urbanisation, which refers to offering migrant workers the same entitlements enjoyed by city dwellers and encouraging them to settle down in cities, an official readout of the meeting said.

The migration of rural people, who account for roughly half of China’s 1.4 billion people based on permanent residence registrations, is believed to represent huge potential demand and has been seen as a major driver of future growth of the world’s second-largest economy.

“Based on the criteria of advanced economies, where generally 80 per cent of the population live in urban areas, China still has 14 percentage points to catch up, so there’s great potential in this regard,” said Zheng Fengtian, a professor from the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University in Beijing.