The City and Competitiveness Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences initiated a project, Research into and Outlook on 10-Year Urbanization Development in Southwest China, in Chengdu on Jan 9.

The project aims to look at the trending and development pattern of Southwest China’s economy and the real estate industry, and chart the course for the construction of a related development pattern and strategy for a new real estate business.

Ni Pengfei, leader of a research group for Urbanization Research in Southwest China, said the project intends to provide a brand new perspective in research into urbanization development and the problems of urbanization in Southwest China in the past 10 years.

Real estate enterprises will become a major factor in the research, he said.

Professor Yang Yiyong, director of the Research Institute for Social Development of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China’s urbanization should go along with industrialization, internationalization, modernization and should develop in a service-oriented way.

The market and corporations should play a defining role in urbanization, and the government should only play a basic role, Yang said.

Sun Zhiwen, president of Greenland Holding Group Southwest China Real Estate Division, said urbanization is inextricably connected with the development of the real estate industry; and real estate enterprises should not only build houses, but also provide other facilities and contribute to the creation of urban jobs.

Greenland Holding Group’s Real Estate Division, which has traversed a course of 10-year development in Southwest China, will provide support for case studies in the research.