The need is for rational urbanization

China's burgeoning urbanization has been a key driving force of its sustained economic development over the past decades. But it has also given rise to a series of problems that call for greater government efforts to make urbanization suitable for its economic conditions.

At a time when China's exports sector is running out of steam to further fuel economic growth amid a lingering global economic slowdown, some domestic experts tend to pin greater hope on urbanization as a key force to increase national investment and consumption.

China's urbanization efforts have produced noticeable results in the past 30-odd years since the adoption of the reform and opening-up in 1978, with its urbanization rate increasing from 17.9 percent to more than 50 percent. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, about 691 million people were living in cities by the end of 2011. A NBS report published in February this year shows that by the end of last year more people were living in urban than rural areas for the first time in China's history. To be precise, 51.3 percent of China's population was living in urban areas - 12.2 percentage points higher than in 2002.