Plan to widen public services access

China plans to expand the coverage of basic public services — including education, housing, social security and medical care — to migrant workers and other residents without local household registration in the cities where they live and work, in a move aimed at meeting public demand and advancing urbanization.

The State Council released a guideline on Friday, pledging equal access to basic public services for all permanent residents, rather than limiting eligibility to those with local household registration, which is usually tied to place of birth.

The initiative comes as China now has 250 million people living in urban areas without obtaining local household registration, including 170 million rural migrant workers and their family members, said Zheng Bei, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a news conference on Tuesday.