China will map out city clusters across the country’s central, western and northeastern regions and develop them into engines for growth as part of its urbanization strategy, according to the nation’s leadership.

“Diverse and sustainable” funding mechanisms will be developed to finance policies, they pledged at an urbanization conference, according to a report of the meeting by the Xinhua News Agency. Attention must also be paid to the environmental impact of such development, they said.

China’s leaders pledged last month to speed up urbanization as part of a package of policies that represent the biggest expansion of economic freedoms since at least the 1990s. Premier Li Keqiang has championed the strategy as a “huge engine” for growth as he seeks to shift the world’s second-largest economy toward a model that relies on domestic consumption rather than investment and exports.

“Pushing forward urbanization is an important path to solve problems related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers,” according to Xinhua’s report posted on the central government’s website. It is also a crucial tool “to boost China’s domestic consumption and drive industrial upgrading.”

President Xi Jinping and Li spoke at the two-day conference, with Xi emphasizing principles and priorities and the premier giving more detailed plans, according to Xinhua, which said it was the highest-level meeting the Chinese leadership has ever convened on urbanization.

China’s urban population surpassed that of rural areas for the first time in the country’s history in 2011. Even so, millions of migrants who have moved to towns and cities can’t benefit from urban welfare, education and health services because the household registration system, known as hukou, classifies them as rural residents.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top economic planning agency, said Sunday it will promote urbanization and issue supporting policies on residency, land, capital, housing and public services.

Priority will be given to investments in projects such as shantytown redevelopment, construction of affordable housing, more railway infrastructure in central and western China and major projects to promote energy saving, emissions reduction and environmental improvement, it said. (Bloomberg)