The State Council, or China's cabinet, has called for a middle to long-term plan to promote new-style urbanization, enabling more migrant workers and their families to settle in cities.

 

The government will accelerate hukou, or household registration system, reform, and protect rights of rural citizens, officials said at a regular meeting of the council on Monday.

 

China's urbanization rate passed 50 percent in 2011, with urban residents accounting for 51.27 percent of the population that year, up 1.32 percentage points from 2010.

 

"The unequal and unfair treatment in using public services, caused by the household registration system, should no longer be tolerated," said Feng Kui, researcher at the China Center for Urban Development under the NDRC.

 

Economists said the demand unleashed by accelerated urbanization will be enormous, and the transfer of migrant workers to cities will boost internal demand and investment.

 

Urban citizens consume as much as three times the amount of rural citizens. Migrant families tend to save, rather than spend, due to the insufficient social welfare coverage.

 

The nation will explore new-style urbanization, and more city clusters will emerge. Besides traditional clusters such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, more will be established in central and western regions. 

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