The State Council has approved the overall development plan (2011-2020) for Foshan, a city in South China’s Guangdong province.

As a key national manufacturing base and a center of trade, commerce, and transportation in the Pearl River Delta, Foshan should be built into a modern city with a prosperous economy, good environment, and distinctive features, said the circular.

According to the circular, urban and rural areas should be under coordinated management with shared infrastructure and public service facilities.

The city scale should be rationally controlled. By 2020, downtown population should be under 2.2 million, with urban construction land of less than 218.26 square kilometers. Efforts should be made to intensively use the land and protect the basic farmland.

Meanwhile, more work should be done to improve urban infrastructure through a green and low-carbon approach, and build the city into a regional traffic hub with complete roads, railways, and ports.

The circular also urged the coordinated planning of water supply, drainage, and waste processing, and establishing a comprehensive urban disaster prevention system.

According to the circular, emissions reduction and retiring backward capacity should be accelerated to control waste discharges with more efforts to develop green buildings and improve safe waste treatment.

Public facilities, such as for education, medical care, and urban administration should be well planned with more input to renovate shanty houses and improve living conditions.

In addition, the circular also called for more efforts to protect natural reserves, scenic resorts, as well as historical and cultural heritage.