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The Paper

Since the central government published in July 2016 its decision to build around 1,000 specialty towns by 2020, local governments have sped up their investment in and building of various specialty towns. For instance, the eastern city of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, recently announced that it will build its first set of specialty towns, eight in total, investing 8 billion yuan (US$ 1.3 billion) by the end of 2017.

Shen Chi, deputy director of NDRC’s Center for the Reform and Development of Cities and Small Towns, told The Paper that “specialty towns need patient nurturing more than break-neck construction, and organic growth more than just GDP increase.” He also cited eastern China’s Zhejiang Province as an example, saying “It took six or seven years for specialty towns there to become what they are today.”

Meanwhile, the craze for specialty towns should not be dampened, according to Hu Bai, president of the Beijing Institute for Industry-City Integration Technologies. Since such towns are likely to be the next growth engine for China’s economy, various parties are exploring the field for opportunities. Market forces are therefore one way of testing the likelihood of a town achieving sustainable development, with one indicator being whether they can draw enough tourists to keep them afloat.

In fact, the central government is taking an increasingly specific approach to specialty towns. The NDRC released a guideline on the development of such towns on October 31, 2016, stressing that development should be based on a specialty industry and that all these towns must differentiate themselves to sustain their development.

“The development of specialty towns should… reflect regional differences, and take on various forms, to give expression to the unique appeal of different towns,” said the guideline. “Every town should find its own specialty industry, one having the greatest potential for growth, then develop and strengthen the industry, and build a unique industrial ecology with sustainable competitiveness.”

avorable development policies have been rolled out for "speciality towns" in China, ushering in a new wave of heady development. There are two different categories of the towns: entrepreneurship platforms for emerging industries (different from organic towns or industrial parks), and organic towns with a well-developed specialty industry. But experts and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) alike have warned that the development of a specialty town needs patience and differentiation, according to news website