The National Development and Reform Commission has released an announcement on the key tasks for a new type of urbanization construction in 2019, which requires medium-sized cities to release their restrictions on registered permanent residence in an all-around way.

According to the document, major cities with an urban permanent resident population between 1 million and 3 million should completely cancel their household registration restrictions. And big cities with permanent resident populations between 3 million and 5 million should relax their restrictions on registered permanent residence in an all-around way. In addition, megacities with huge resident populations should adjust and improve their point-based household registration policies and increase the quota of point-based permanent household registrations.

The new document is regarded as a significant move to reform the household registration system.

The new policy will benefit many medium-sized major cities, which is conducive to boosting the urban population, promoting the economic and social development of local and central cities, and driving the development of city clusters and metropolitan areas.

It is expected that a new round of population competition and talent competition will take place in these cities, which will be a strong driving force for China's further urbanization.