China

From “High-Speed” to “High-Quality” Growth: Shenzhen, the birthplace of China's economic miracle, goes low-carbon

Shenzhen, in south China, has grown from a small fishing community to a metropolis of 10 million people in just 35 years. — Shenzhen, in south China, has grown from a small fishing community to
a metropolis of 10 million people in just 35 years.

Shenzhen occupies a special place in modern Chinese reform history. Set up as the first Special Economic Zone under economic liberalization in 1980, the city has grown from a small fishing community to a metropolis of 10 million people in just 35 years.

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(Infographic) China: Better Urbanization Leads to Higher-Quality Growth for All People

We all know urbanization is important: Nearly 80% of gross domestic product is generated in cities around the world. Countries must get urbanization right if they want to reach middle- or high-income status.

But urbanization is challenging, especially because badly planned cities can hamper economic transformation and cities can become breeding grounds for poverty, slums and squalor and drivers of pollution, environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s why it’s important for us to build cities that are livable, with people-centered approaches to urbanization and development. That will allow innovation and new ideas to emerge and enable economic growth, job creation and higher productivity, while also saving energy and managing natural resources, emissions and disaster risks. When the process is driven by people, it can lead to important results, the same way London and Los Angeles addressed their air pollution problems.

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(Infographic) China: Better Urbanization Leads to Higher-Quality Growth for All People

众所周知，城镇化很重要：全世界近80%国内生产总值由城市创造。一国如想进入中等收入或高收入国家行列，就必须要正确推进城镇化。

但城镇化具有挑战性，突出原因在于规划很差的城市有可能阻碍经济转型，也有可能成为滋生贫困、贫民区和肮脏的温床，还有可能成为污染、环境退化和温室气体排放的驱动器。

这就是我们要采用“以人为本”的城镇化模式和发展模式构建宜居城市的原因所在。推进城镇化可促进创新，催生新创意，为经济增长、新增就业和提高生产率创造条件，同时还可以节约能源，管理自然资源、二氧化碳排放和灾害风险。城镇化进程如由人推动，就有可能产生重要成果。伦敦和洛杉矶就是采用这一方式来解决其空气污染问题的。

Those unfamiliar with the fast growing emerging economies of East Asia are likely to think that governments in these countries let market forces and capitalism roam free, red in tooth and claw. That was certainly my impression before coming to work in the region, and generally that held at the outset of our work by the group of us that wrote a new World Bank report “East Asia Pacific At Work: Employment, Enterprise and Wellbeing” .

The report shows just how wrong we were. We could be forgiven this impression—many of us had come from assignments in Latin America and the Caribbean or in Europe and Central Asia, where the distortions and rigidities from labor regulation and poorly designed social protection are rife, and where policy makers cast envious looks at the stellar and sustained employment outcomes in East Asia.

Well, it turns out that although they came relatively late to labor regulation and social protection, many governments in the region have entered this arena with gusto. We were surprised to find that, going just by what is written in their labor codes, the average level of employment protection in East Asia is actually higher than the OECD average.

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The latest macroeconomic data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 18 suggest that China’s economic growth has moderated in the first quarter of 2014. GDP growth has decelerated from 7.7 percent (year-over-year) in the last quarter of 2013 to 7.4 percent (year-over-year) in the first quarter of 2014.

On a sequential basis, the quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted growth slowed from 1.7 percent in Q4 last year to 1.4 percent in Q1 2014.

The deceleration in the first quarter of this year is in line with World Bank expectations (see our latest East Asia Economic Update) (Figure1).

Figure 1: Official growth data on the demand side reflect subdued export growth and a moderation in investment growth. Consumption led growth in the first quarter of 2014, contributing 5.7 percentage points to growth, followed by investment, contributing 3.1 percentage points. Net exports dragged down growth by 1.4 percentage points.

Many economists speculate that the weakening trend in growth may put more pressure on the government to implement more and stronger growth supportive fiscal and monetary policies, following the stimulus measures unveiled recently that include accelerated expenditures on railway construction and social housing, as well as tax breaks for small businesses.

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中国国家统计局（NBS）发布的最新宏观经济数据显示，中国的经济增长在2014年一季度出现放缓，GDP增长从2013年四季度的7.7％（同比）降低到2014年一季度的7.4％（同比）。经过季节性调整后的季度环比增长从2013年四季度的1.7％放缓至2014年一季度的1.4%。

一季度的减速符合我们的预期（参见最新一期《东亚经济半年报》）。官方的需求增长数据呈现出口增长乏力和投资增长放缓。一季度消费主导的增长为经济增长贡献了5.7个百分点，其次是投资贡献了3.1个百分点。净出口拖累增长1.4个百分点（图1）。
图1：中国一季度GDP增长减速

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由于最近发生的严重削弱国内品牌的食品恐慌事件，中国企业所面临的一项挑战就是重新夺回巨大的国内食品市场。

根据最近的一项调查，在发生了若干严重的食品安全事件之后，大约64%的中国人认为食品安全是影响他们日常生活的头等大事，需要政府采取紧迫的行动。

中国政府正在很认真地考虑这些关切，并在其食品控制体制内启动了重要的改革。它在2009年公布了一项新的《食品安全法》，并在2013年成立了一个新的食品安全权威机构，以处理这类问题。这种改革目前正在向省和地方层面推进。这些改革最终将影响超过100万国家官员，重组十多个政府部委，修订超过5,000个法规。它们将全面改革食品控制体制，引进新的有关食品安全的全球最佳做法政策。

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A challenge for Chinese businesses is to re-capture the vast domestic market owing to the recent food scares that have seriously undermined the domestic brands.

After several high-profile food safety incidents, according to one recent survey, around 64% of Chinese consider food safety as the number one priority that affects their daily lives and requires immediate action by the government.

The Chinese government is taking these concerns very seriously and has launched important reforms in its system of food control. It promulgated a new Food Safety Law in 2009, and created a new food safety authority in 2013 to deal with these issues. These reforms are now rolling out to provincial and local levels. These reforms will eventually affect more than one million state officials, restructure more than a dozen government ministries, and revise more than 5,000 regulations. The reforms will result in a complete overhaul of the food control system and introduction of new global best practice policies for food safety.

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版本：العربية Español

预计到2030年，中国超3亿人将迁入城市居住。届时，中国70%的人口将在城市居住。考虑到中国人口规模，这意味着全世界每六位城市居民中，就有一位是中国人。不论是在中国，还是在其它国家，与人口构成变化相伴而来的挑战已然显见并广为人知。

城市化是一大全球性趋势。因此，在我们思考中国推进城市化采取的新方法之际，我们认为，这些方法对面临类似问题的其它国家具有借鉴价值。换言之，中国在城市化方面取得的成功，可为全球重新思考如何把城市建设成为健康、高效和成功的城市铺平道路。

Also available in: 中文

Also available in: العربية Español

In 2030, more than 300 million Chinese are expected to have moved into cities. By then, 70 percent will live in urban settings. Given China’s size, it will mean that one in six urban dwellers worldwide will be Chinese. The challenges coming with that demographic shift are already visible and well known, in China and beyond.

Urbanization is a global trend. So when we think about new approaches to urbanization here in China, we believe that they are of value for other countries facing similar issues. In other words, China’s success in urbanization could pave the way for global rethinking on how cities can be built to be healthy, efficient, and successful.