City's hukou policy to hold firm

City's hukou policy to hold firm

• Source: Global Times
• [09:11 March 16 2011]
• Comments

By Li Shuang

Beijing is unprepared to loosen hukou (household register) policy restrictions within the next five years, as population density in urban areas has already exceeded 20,000 per square kilometer, said a city of-ficial on Monday.

Having grown to 19.72 million residents at the end of 2009, the capital's population has already exceeded original projections for 2020, as over 500,000 people move to Beijing every year, said Zhao Lei, a spokes-man of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform Tuesday at a press conference announcing Beijing's 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015).

As one of the most developed cities in China, Beijing has more career opportuni-ties and better salaries, Zhao said.

Discouraging job seekers from flocking to Beijing is futile, according to Zhao in a Xinhua report.

However the large population influx has put a strain on the area's natural resources such as water and land, as well as munici-pal services including transportation, edu-cation and medical care.

The municipal government has ad-dressed managing population growth and limiting the issuance of hukous during the 12th Five Year Plan.

"Only when the development gap among regions disappears will the stress on big cit-ies like Beijing and Shanghai be alleviated," Zhao was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

At the press conference, Zhao also refut-ed accusations that the government is try-ing to drive low-income earners out of the city in a bid to curb the population.

Since the beginning of the year, many blue-collar migrant workers in low-rent subterranean housing were evicted from their basement homes.