China’s urbanization rate is set to beat previous international predictions over the next decade, providing an antidote to the country’s shrinking workforce and declining birthrate, an influential Chinese economist has said.
About 75% of the Chinese population will be living in cities by 2030, up from the current 64%, according to Lu Ming, an economics professor at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University specializing in urban development.
"Even if China’s workforce or overall population starts to decline, urbanization can still make sure that the labor supply to the manufacturing and services industry will keep expanding,” said Lu, who participated in an economic round-table with President Xi Jinping last August. "The process of population flowing into bigger cities will lead to more efficient utilization of labor resources, which will lead to continued economic growth,” he said in an interview recently.