The President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, said on Friday recent positive economic signals from China were more than "a flash in the pan." On his first trip to the Asian nation at the helm of the institution, he praised Beijing's efforts to fuel domestic growth.

Jim Yong Kim said current growth forecasts were very positive, following a rather negative third quarter. The Chinese government expects the national economy to expand by 7.5 percent this year.

The World Bank President said the new leadership in the world's second-largest economy was showing resolve to tackle the disparities between rich and poor parts of the population.

Moving to the cities

Beijingand the World Bank agreed to launch a joint study on the effects of large-scale urbanization in China, one of the big and exploding human migrations of modern times.

Both sides recognized that urbanization helped to fuel growth and raise people's living standards, but also meant enormous challenges to the environment, food security and the delivery of health care services.

Chinese cities have expanded rapidly in number and scale over the past three decades, with more than half of the country's 1.35 billion people now being urban dwellers.

hg/dr (dpa, AFP)