China's momentous strategy of constructing a new countryside will give an impetus to the country's urbanization progress, Gu Wenxuan, secretary-general of the Chinese Society for Urban Studies (CSUS), said it at Friday's news briefing on China's top ten major events affecting the urban development in 2005.

The strategy of constructing a new countryside was chosen by a group of noted Chinese scholars as one of the top ten. This is because the construction of a new countryside is closely linked to China's urbanization process, Gu said.

According to Gu, China is experiencing a high-speed progress of urbanization, with several hundred million urban labor forces moving to cities for jobs.

Official statistics show that currently the total number of migrant rural labor forces in cities has reached 130 million, and the figure will increase by 5 million or 6 million every year.

Gu noted that rural people's flow into cities has brought about many "empty villages". So the Chinese government will accelerate its efforts to renovate these obsolete villages and improve living and working conditions for local rural residents.

Gu predicts when more and more Chinese villages take shape, a great number of migrant rural labor forces will be back again, which will surely help boost China's agricultural industry.

The case of thirsting for rural labor forces in south China's Pearl River Delta last year indicated a sign of the return trend, said Gu.

Gu said the return of migrant workers will also help ease the high-speed urbanization progress in China, and promote the health development of Chinese cities.

He predicted that in the coming five years, the expansion of the number of migrant labor forces in cities will be slowed down, and the social welfare for those migrant workers will be improved.

Over the past few years, the gaps between city and countryside, urban citizens and rural residents have been wide. Therefore, solving issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers have turned to be the urgent task for the Chinese government.

In 2005, the government and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China vowed to construct a "new countryside" so as to narrow the gap between city and countryside.

(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2006)