The Central and local governments have been taking a practical stance in turning more rural residents into urban dwellers through the building of smaller cities and towns as part of its urbanization drive.

An official with the Ministry of Construction Tuesday told China Daily that it is listing some 2,000 towns across the country as "key towns'' in the country's effort to develop grass roots economies and create jobs for the surplus labour force in rural areas.

"The listing is meant to encourage local governments to focus their resources on a few small cities and towns that are relatively strong in economic development and have real promise to grow into larger cities,'' said Li Xiaolong, an official with the Urban and Rural Planning Department of the Ministry of Construction.

The latest statistics show the country has a total of 20,600 towns now. If the village level townships are also included, the number rises to more than 60,000.

"But only a few of them are really doing well,'' said Li. "That is why we need to focus our efforts on the smaller number of towns that have the real potential to grow into larger cities.''

Key towns will enjoy preferential policies in areas such as land use, construction, financing and even social securities. The exact work will be left to provincial governments, which will have varied policies according to their respective situations.

For two decades, the country has been pursuing an urbanization policy that limits the growth of large cities but fosters smaller cities and towns. The reason, urban planners said, is because the big cities are already too crowded to accommodate more labourers.

But critics said the administrative order to build small towns are a waste of time and money, because the natural result of a market economy will see rural labourers flocking to big cities instead of entering nearby towns as the government hoped.

"The campaigns to build small cities and towns are often favoured by local officials who merely tried to make political achievements,'' said said Hu Dongyu, director of the academic exchange department in China Urban Science Research Society.

Having realized the problems during the process of urbanization, all levels of government are adjusting their strategies.

"We will not only focus on the building of towns and cities, but also a balanced development of large and medium-sized cities,'' said Li.

The rural residents will not be limited to their farmland or the nearby towns, but will also be free to go to larger cities to find a job. The labourers, after learning skills in cities, will help build their hometowns when coming back, said Li.

In southwestern Chongqing municipality, the government no longer take on an all-around campaign in all towns.

Picking 45 settlements as "central towns,'' the government is encouraging towns to develop their economies according to their particular resources, such as by introducing key products from those areas.

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