The local government of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality is soliciting suggestions from people around the world on how to achieve balanced development between its urban and rural areas.

In an open letter posted on the city's website -- www.cqnews.net -- Party chief Wang Yang and Mayor Wang Hongju welcomed people "from all walks of life, netizens, scholars, specialists home and abroad, and research and media institutions" to submit proposals via the Internet.

They also said they would study the experiences of other countries in "urbanization and industrialization."

On June 7, Chongqing and Chengdu, capital of neighboring Sichuan Province, were selected by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, as pilot cities to work towards coordinated and balanced development between urban and rural areas.

Covering 82,000 square kilometers, Chongqing has a population of 31 million, 73 percent of whom live in rural areas.

The city's gross domestic product reached 348.6 billion yuan (US$45.8 billion) in 2006. However, its growth has been uneven. The per capita GDP in Wuxi County was 3,593 yuan last year, only one tenth of that in Yuzhong District.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2007)