Rapid Urbanization and Development: Latin America and China Summit

The People's Republic of China (China) and countries in Latin America face similar challenges in their cities. Their convergence is a consequence of the speed at which they have become urbanized. Although in China urbanization has occurred later, faster, and more massively than in Latin America, both cases imply a large migration of rural inhabitants to urban areas. In China and Latin America, the move to urban centers has meant significant social and economic improvement for the migrating population. In parallel, there has been a significant increase in the demand for urban services, often beyond the capacity of national and subnational governments. This publication is a summary of the presentations at the first Latin America-China Policy and Knowledge Summit relating to the impacts of rapid urbanization and national prosperity, held in Lima, Peru, on July 15-16, 2014, and co-organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Ministry of Housing, Construction, and Sanitation of Peru, and Inter-American Development Bank.