Vice Premier calls for accelerating household registration reform

BEIJING -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli Friday urged increased efforts to meet urbanization reform targets while speeding up household registration system reform.

Zhang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when addressing a teleconference on the reform of the national household registration system.

In a bid to remove obstacles to the urbanization drive, Zhang stressed the target of increasing the ratio of registered urban residents to 45 percent of the total population by 2020. The ratio was 35.9 percent at the end of 2014.

Zhang asked authorities to stick to the basic tone of "seeking progress while maintaining stability" in the urbanization drive and ensure quality urbanization.

He also called for reforming accompanying policies of urbanization and providing newly-settled urban residents with better public services.

The household registration system, which has divided the nation into rural and urban populations since the 1950s, provides access to education, health care and other public services.