Recently, the Ninth Forum on China’s Industrial Development was held in Beijing with the theme of “For Chinese Industry in the 14th Five-Year Planning Period.” Sponsored by the Institute of Industrial Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the forum gathered experts and scholars from CASS, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Development Research Center of the State Council, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Renmin University of China, and other institutions. Some attended the forum online.

CASS Vice President Cai Fang noted in his speech that urbanization is vital to modernization, because no modern country in the world has been built upon low urbanization levels. In 2019, China’s urbanization rate was 60.6%, which leaves a gap to bridge between China and middle-high income countries whose urbanization rates average 65%, and high-income countries that are urbanized at an average rate of 82%, Cai said.

Given the situation, Cai urged policymakers to remove barriers hindering the flow of resources during the 14th Five-Year Planning period (2021-2025), concentrate industries and populations in advantageous areas, and foster city clusters as the main form of growth driver, thus boosting overall economic efficiency.

Moreover, it is essential, based on reforms to the household registration (hukou) system, to vigorously promote the new type of urbanization with citizenization of migrant workers at the core, increase labor supply from the supply side to improve the efficiency of resource reallocation, significantly strengthen migrant workers’ consumption abilities from the demand side, and reinforce reallocation efforts with Chinese characteristics to enlarge the coverage of public services and elevate equalization levels, Cai said.

At the forum, the Report on China’s Industrial Development (2020) was released, which was the 25th annual report of the series compiled by the Institute of Industrial Economics at CASS under the chief editorship of the institute’s director, Shi Dan, and published by the Economy & Management Publishing House.

Consisting of 66 chapters, the report addresses major challenges facing Chinese industry in this period of major change that has not been seen in a century, with the aim of exploring solutions to problems impeding China’s high-quality industrial development.