Imagine yourself as the mayor of an ambitious third-tier city in China. You have seen the gateway cities, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, grow at a stratospheric pace over the last decade, hoovering up vast quantities of foreign and government investment in the process. You are also seeing rapid economic and infrastructural progress in leading second-tier cities, such as Dalian, Chongqing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Tianjin, as they seek to capture expansionist investments from domestic and overseas companies based in the gateway cities, and late-mover entrants into the China market. Frankly, you look at the investment capital washing around out there, and you want some of it.
As a third-tier city mayor, you have watched carefully what has and
hasn’t succeeded in terms of urban infrastructure development across
China. You’ve also engaged the services of several reputable – and a
few previously unheard of – foreign planning consultants, and jumbled
together their intricate models to create a gigantic hybrid city with
little tangible structure or form.
And now you have prioritised a list of ‘must haves’ for your ambitious
city: lots of very tall office towers and several big-name leasing
agents to market them, a glass-and-chrome airport located about 30km
from downtown with an eight-lane toll-controlled freeway connection, a
Xintiandi-style ‘entertainment district,’ as many 5-star hotel
franchises as you can sign up, Motel 168, a ‘state-level’ museum, an
overly complex subway system, abundant HDTV advertising screens across
the downtown area, Wal-mart and Carrefour hypermarkets, a cavernous
convention centre, a portfolio of luxury brand retail malls, no less
than five Italian restaurants, an enormous Ferris wheel, a long list of
commercial investment incentives, a dedicated ‘banking’ district – and
an eco-city franchise.
The last one may surprise a few people, us included. However, it seems
that the voluminous press coverage created by the
as-yet-still-under-wraps 86 sq. km Dongtan ‘eco city’ – being
constructed on previously undisturbed wetlands of Chongming Island,
just off the coast from Shanghai – has stamped a giant eco footprint
onto the planning models of cities nationwide. Or so we are led to
believe.
Speaking at the joint CNN-Fortune 'Principal Voices' seminar in Shanghai, Cheng Liang Ma, President of the SIIC Dongtan Investment & Development Co., said: "We've paid a high price in China for the last two decades of rapid growth, in terms of [water, air and ground] pollution. We are working on a model city that will rely only on renewable energies, such as wind and solar resources. And we hope to patent this model across China."
Co-developed by SIIC and Arup, the Dongtan ‘eco-city’ remains something
of an enigma – and many analysts are wondering whether it can live up
to its lofty eco-friendly credentials. Access Asia, for example, has
likened the project to the Potemkin. However, that hasn’t stopped the
‘eco-franchise’ from becoming a very desirable must-have addition for
Chinese cities. “Sustainability is now a national policy,” said Cheng
Liang Ma. “So we are already working on five follow-up projects,
including Langfang, in Hebei province, and another in Shandong
province. Urbanisation is an unstoppable process, but two or three
years from now, I think we will see several case studies of such
sustainable projects in second- and third-tier cities in China.”
As mayors across the country set to work on the Dongtanisation of
metropolitan China, BizChinaUpdate will be watching closely – and
diligently considering our own carbon footprint in the process.
Last update : Saturday, 17 November 2007
|
|
|
News & Interviews 
(0 vote)
