City clusters to boost economic growth, rein property prices
- By Guo Yiming
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 17, 2018
Building satellite cities around big mega cities may be the solution for another round of regional economic success and keep runaway property prices on hold, a political advisor said on March 14.
Mo Tianquan, a member of 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and chairman of Fang Holdings Limited, told China.org.cn that city clusters will promote the reallocation of resources, break down limits of administrative boundaries, shift non-essential functions of big cities to smaller cities, thus providing new opportunities to the nearby regions.
He said the idea of city clustering meets the requirement of contemporary social development, citing successful cases that have built on the synergetic development of several cities.
The tremendous growth of the Chinese economy over the past decades was largely driven by the rise of two super-city clusters – the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, which altogether accounted for over one quarter of the country's GDP in 2017, according to statistics.
"With scientific designing and planning from both national and regional levels, city clusters will unleash significant vitality for the concentration of industry, population, production elements and resources, thus supporting high and stable growth in the next 10 to 20 years," said Mo.
Another advantage for building city clusters is to curb runaway property prices, a major woe for mega cities in China, he added.
Mo observes that one of the reasons for heated property market is the imbalance between supply and demand, with too many house buyers versus a limited supply of houses in core cities.
New property developments and more channels of housing supply in relatively new city clusters may be the solution to the current housing conundrum.
