China's top planning authority pledged it will issue procedures designed to help migrant workers and their families acquire full urban residential status.

The National Development and Reform Commission will, for the first time, take over the leadership of the process and speed the change, according to Xu Shaoshi, the NDRC's chief, at a high-level conference about the reform held last week.

Providing full urban household registration, or hukou, to migrant workers was listed as one of the major tasks for the NDRC this year.