Residents in Guangzhou, the capital of South China's Guangdong Province, will for the first time join in designing the city's blueprint for future development, the municipal government has announced.

Based on six recommended city plans and advice from a number of experts, the city government of Guangzhou is formulating a development design for the city that will lead it into the year 2020.

As part of the effort, the government recently published for public review and comment a master plan on development of housing and transportation.

It is soliciting residents' comments and suggestions through questionnaires, by interviewing passersby and on the Internet.

Comments and suggestions from residents will be combined with those from professionals and contribute important input in the final version of the development plan.

A large number of residential buildings will be built in the coming 13 years, according to the master plan, with 84,000 new apartments expected to be put on the market from 2011 to 2015.

"The per capital living area will increase in 2010 to 25 sq m from the current 18 sq m. The figure will continue to grow to 30 sq m by 2020," said Ye Haojun, chief engineer of the Guangzhou Urban Planning Bureau.

Most of the new buildings will be built in suburban areas, which are as a result expected to receive an economic boost.

Because many of the planned new buildings will be composed of low-priced housing sold to poor families using financial aid from the government, the overheated real estate market is expected to cool.

The city will sequentially develop 10 new towns, according to the plan.

From 2007 to 2010, the city will focus on construction of Guangzhou New Town, Baiyun New Town, Luogang New Town, Huadu Air Harbor New Town, Nansha Ocean Harbor New Town and Huangge New Town. Together they will occupy a total of 115 sq km and accommodate 1.04 million people.

From 2010 to 2020, the city will move on to develop a town at the new railway station in Huadu District and a university town.

According to the plan, all new towns will be developed into bases for manufacturing, logistics, education and hi-tech.

There are several ways the public can express opinions, including by e-mail to gongshi@up.gov.cn, or fax at 020-83329892, or through the mail to the Guangzhou Urban Planning Bureau.

(By Liang Qiwen )