Enhancing China's urban governance structure

This chapter examines urban governance in China. It assesses the main challenges presented by the current system of inter-governmental relations, which often seems to impede co-ordination across levels of government and among agencies at the same level of government. The chapter proposes strategies for strengthening collaboration for urban planning across levels of government and exploiting potential complementarities across jurisdictions and policy sectors. It also explores local government finance and the way the current arrangements for managing local public finance influence urbanisation decisions. It formulates some recommendations to enable local governments to finance urban development projects in a more sustainable, less distorting way. Finally, the chapter addresses the capacity gaps in Chinese local governments and proposes some measures to acquire the right competences and skills to formulate and implement urban development policies. It concludes with proposals to develop a strategic and integrated approach to urban planning involving real citizen participation.