In a timely and necessary move to remove the obstacles that prevent migrant workers from settling down in the cities where they work, the General Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, recently stated that big and medium-sized cities should not set a time limit on the participation in local social security network longer than five or three years respectively as the threshold for migrant workers to qualify for a local hukou, or household registration. Nor should they set homebuying, investment, or paying taxes as preconditions for a hukou.

To help non-local people settle down in cities is not only a step toward promoting greater social equality and justice, but also a must for the country's economic transformation.

At present, more than 700 million people live in the cities and towns. However, as many as 200 million people, mainly migrant workers, are denied such basic public services and welfare as healthcare, children's education and social security due to their lack of a local hukou.

The failure to incorporate the floating population into cities and denying them the same identity as local residents exacerbates social divisions and undermines social equality and justice.

To raise the urbanization rate by allowing more migrant workers settle in the cities where they work is a goal enshrined in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) and part of the country's reform of the hukou system.

According to the five-year plan, the goal is to relocate 100 million rural residents to the cities by 2020, which will raise the country's urbanization rate to 45 percent.

To ensure this goal is met the government should offer the necessary financial guarantees and strive to push forward reform of the decades-long hukou and social security systems.

(China Daily 10/14/2016 page8)