Beijing, scrambling to provide water and infrastructure for its burgeoning population, has exceeded its target population of 16 million two years early.

The number of permanent residents in the capital of the world’s most populous country reached 16.33 million at the end of 2007, an increase of 520,000 on the previous year, the Beijing statistics bureau said on its website.

The population comprises 12.13 million residents carrying “hukou,” or residence permits, and some 4.2 million migrant workers working against the clock to prepare Beijing for the summer Olympics this August.

Beijing’s acting mayor Guo Jinlong last week said the “resource and environmental problems” brought by the city’s soaring population were its “most pressing issue” going forward.

Experts have warned that Beijing has already 3 million more people than its resources can feed.

An extra 2.5 million visitors are expected to descend on the capital during the Olympics.
On the flip side, China’s stunning economic growth created 12 million new jobs in 2007 — more than the population of Greece and easily exceeding a government target of nine million, state press reported.

By comparison, just 1.3 million jobs were created in the United States, the world’s largest economy, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The report did not specify whether the 2007 urban job rate included the massive floating population of migrant workers seeking work in the cities.

The number of such migrants is believed to be around 150 million.

But China will face a challenge keeping unemployment low due to the new job-seekers and a continued move away from labour-intensive industries, officials said.

China is expected to announce the economy grew around 11.5 per cent in 2007, the highest in 13 years.