China is willing to learn from the European Union (EU) in its push towards urbanisation, Premier Li Keqiang said Thursday.
Addressing the closing ceremony of Thursday's 2013 China-EU Urbanisation Partnership Forum, Li said that the country would respect and protect the rights of rural people, and strive for sustainable urbanisation, Xinhua reported.
He urged China and the EU to deepen cooperation in many aspects, especially among enterprises, to jointly improve city design, public services and historical and cultural relic preservation.
China has just started pushing urbanisation with a core objective of improving people's living standards, which means learning from the EU's rich experience, said Xu Shaoshi, minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission.
He said that the EU could help China urbanise, which will provide the EU with many opportunities as hundreds of millions of rural Chinese head for cities.
"China expects more EU countries, cities, enterprises and organisations to establish close and practical partnerships with Chinese counterparts," Xu said.
The forum witnessed agreements reached between 12 Chinese and EU cities and organisations for win-win benefits in city planning and management, industrial transformation and environmental protection.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also attended the closing ceremony.
