China could save $1.4tn in infrastructure spending over the next 15 years by increasing the population density of its cities, the World Bank said yesterday.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the bank’s managing director, told a conference on urbanisation in Beijing that according to current trends China’s cities would spend $5.3tn on infrastructure over the next decade and a half but could save roughly a quarter of that by using a series of market reforms that would decrease urban sprawl.
Managing the inflow of rural migrants to urban cities is a challenge for China, which has 200m more urban residents than a decade ago, as rural peasants flood into cities in search of higher-paying jobs. According to the bank, China gains 1.8m urban residents every month.