China's new leadership announced urbanization as a key driver of the Chinese economy and called for quality and new urbanization at the Third Plenum in November 2013. In March 2014 China announced its committment to granting urban hukou or household registration to 100 million rural populations who have moved into cities. China currently has about 300 million migrant workers without hukou, with which residential welfare is affiliated. The new policy will lead to significant challenges and opportunities in areas such as housing, transportation, social integration, employment and poverty.
Singapore is seen as one of the successful example for sustainable urbanization globally. The city-state has the highest population density in Asia, and it has the world's highest GDP per capita (2010 PPP US$) and an unemployment rate below 2 percent. With more than 5 million people inhabiting less than 700 square kilometers.
SMU and Tsinghua University are co-organizing a Global Forum on Urbanization and Urban Governance to address the common challenges both countries are facing. Leading scholars, policy makers, business leaders, and civic society leaders will come together to address some of the key issues at Tsinghua University in Beijing:
Dr Liu Thai Ker, Singapore's most well-known urban planner and a global thinker on issues related to urbanization, is the Keynote Speaker at the Forum. He will share his thoughts on the experience of Singapore 's urban transformation. Dr Liu is Founding Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Liveable Cities in Singapore. He was past CEO of Singapore Housing & Development Board and Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority. Dr Liu was Chairman of the design jury for the Beijing Olympic Master Plan competition in 2002.
In addition to the Keynote, there will be a roundtable on "Managing Urban Transformations' and a special lunch panel on "Corporate Social Responsibility'. There are specialized panels in the afternoon covering "Social Housing' and "Social Integration & Poverty'.
Some of the key questions include:
1. What are the challenges and opportunities in China's New Urbanization strategy?
2. How can we manage such large-scale urban transformations in modern history?
3. To what extent Singapore Urbanization experiences can be applied outside of the city-state?
4. Do companies have a role to play in creating win-win value propositions while rapid urbanization is bringing profound changes to the country?