Urbanization to cost $13t, expert estimates

The process of urbanization in China will cost at least 80 trillion yuan ($13.1 trillion), a researcher from the Ministry of Finance said at a forum on Thursday.

Jia Kang, chief of the research institute of the Ministry of Finance, suggested closer cooperation between the government and the private sector through a public-private partnership model to facilitate efficiency and professionalism in urbanization.

The new type of urbanization highlights public livelihoods through industrialization rather than pure infrastructure construction at great expense to the environment.

The population of city residents in China has surpassed 50 percent of the total population. However, people registered as permanent urban dwellers make up merely 35 percent of the total population, a far cry from the nearly 80 percent in developed countries.

PPP involves a contract between the government's public sector authority and private parties that provide a public service and assume substantial financial, technical and operational risks in the project.

Urbanization is expected to become a major driving force for China's economic growth as the labor force grows in cities, which will generate a large amount of consumption demand, driving forward industrialization and the service sector.