A new list of national key towns jointly rated by seven ministries, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, was recently released. Six of the towns are in Suzhou: Luzhi town in Wuzhong district, Zhenze town in Wujiang district, Haiyu town in Changshu city, Shajiabang town and Bacheng town in Kunshan city, and Liuhe town in Taicang city.

National key towns are supposed to play an important role in accelerating the urbanization process by leading the development of surrounding rural areas.

There are six conditions to be met in order to become a national key town, including a certain size population, an obvious geographic advantage, potential in economic development, a set of service facilities and functions, a high level of planning and management, and strong scientific and technological innovation capability.

In 2004, seven ministries, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, first approved 1,887 key towns. In August 2013, the seven ministries decided to make additions and adjustments to the list of national key towns, resulting in the recently released list, in which the number of national key towns increased to 3,675, 96 of which are located in Jiangsu province.

As the focus of construction and development of small towns, the national key towns will have the priority to gain support from various departments of local government. They will be built into demonstrative towns that not only are able to receive industrial transfers from big cities but also can support the development of rural areas.

It is reported that local governments will give support to those key towns in terms of preferential policies, land use arrangement and project layout while adhering to the proposition of improving quality, saving land and demonstrating characteristics.

Relevant ministries will also do research on and formulate guidelines for strengthening the development of national key towns. A dynamic adjustment mechanism for national key towns is also planned to be established to guide and support the development of the towns.