China yesterday unveiled a development plan for 262 cities it identified as resource-dependent - those that are rich in natural resources - in an effort to guide their growth onto a more sustainable track.

The plan, the first national framework on sustainable development of resource-dependent cities, puts the cities into four categories based on their resource sustainability, namely "growing," "mature," "declining" and "regenerative."

The plan outlines different growth tasks for the cities and pledges policy support to facilitate their restructuring and upgrading.

Yunnan, Liaoning and Henan are the top three provinces that have the highest concentration of such cities, according to the plan.

The plan proposed to extend region-specific fiscal and policy support to the 262 cities to balance economic, social and environment development, including forming a resource pricing mechanism that can reflect environment costs.

The move comes after decades of exploitation have dried up resources in some of those cities and left them saddled with problems such as environmental degradation, unemployment and heavy social security burdens.

"Resource-rich cities have made tremendous contributions to China's economic takeoff, but the sacrifice they made is also huge," noted Du Ying, vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission.

In China's resource-exhausted cities, around 70 million square meters of shantytown areas need renovation, 600,000 miners remain unemployed and over 1.8 million residents are living on subsistence allowances, according to the plan.

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