"Blue Book of Cities in China” Released

The press conference on The Annual Report on Urban Development of China (2012) (usually mentioned as Blue Book of Cities in China) and the “High-level Forum on Urban Green Development” was held in the lecture hall of CASS in Beijing on 14th August. Mr Xie Shouguang, president of Social Sciences Academic Press, presided over the meeting. And Mr. Wang Weiguang, vice president of CASS and deputy secretary of the party group of CASS, was present at the conference and gave a speech.

Wei Houkai, Deputy Director of the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies (an institute of CASS), gave a keynote speech -- "The Green and Prosperous Road for China Going to an Urban Era.” Shan Jingjing, associate researcher of the institute, gave a presentation entitled “The Evaluation on Scientific Development of China's Cities.”

As the blue book told us, with an end of the village-dominated society era, China is marching toward a new urban era of city-dominated society. In this new era, the urban economy and lifestyle will play a dominant role. The development of cities tends to be clustered, and more attention will be paid on their quality and green leisure space. In this phase, the existing economic structure, planning and construction, administrative system, environmental quality, public services, social harmony and security in Chinese cities are all inadequate to meet the new requirements of the people in the urban era. They face with increasingly severe challenges. In the new era, China should pay more attention to the scientific development in urban areas and comprehensively improve the quality of cities and urbanization. She should promote a better coordination between economic development and environmental protection. The economy, society and ecology should become well-run at the same time. The cities should develop along “a low-carbon, environment-friendly, efficient, harmonious and safe road” for their “green prosperity”. Therefore, China should have a concept of green development, popularize green low-carbon technologies, build a green economy (especially a modern green industrial system), spread the lifestyle of green living and consumption, strengthen the system of green management, assessment and support, and improve the relevant supporting policies and measures.

The event was jointly sponsored by Social Sciences Academic Press and the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies.