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Shanghai global goal a tough one

2014-07-15 13:23 China Daily Web Editor: Qin Dexing
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A bird's-eye view of Shanghai. The city has tapped East China Normal University to set its course for the next 30 years. GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY

A bird's-eye view of Shanghai. The city has tapped East China Normal University to set its course for the next 30 years. GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY

Planning city's future also means reforming its economy, energy as well as politics

If Shanghai is to become an important component of the global economy, its government should better serve the city's people and businesses.

The city designated East China Normal University to study the building of Shanghai into a "global center city" over the next 30 years. Shanghai rejected all other bidders because of their "irrelevance".

Zeng Gang, a city planner and the lead researcher on the project, said the project will be unlike any he worked on before. "I must envision, with my team, how Shanghai will look like in 30 years and suggest to the government how to get there," Zeng said.

"This project is a big challenge because there are too many uncertainties about technology, the economy, energy resources and geopolitics, all of which will influence Shanghai's future."

Shanghai called for bids for 70 key research projects on the city's future on April 1 and received 281 bids in the following 20 days.

Each of the 70 projects is being vetted, a process that can take a year.

The government wants the city to become a management center, operations center, innovation center and service center to the world.

The research project on Shanghai's global city development strategy, which the university is handling, should tell the city government how to build Shanghai into a global city like New York, London or Tokyo.

The government has imposed requirements on the projects, which "must combine the needs of national development strategy, regional integration of the Yangtze River Delta and Shanghai's transformation".

That explains why it is difficult for bidders, research institutes and agencies from around the world to win a bid: Few bidders can handle such a multiplicity of demands, which require coordination between the central government and Shanghai government as well as compromises among the 14 city-level governments in five provincial regions of the Yangtze River Delta.

Zeng's team has previously cooperated with Shanghai in the fields of city planning and construction. So it was no accident that the city turned to Zeng when no bidder could meet all of the requirements.

The main task is to improve Shanghai's ability to allocate global resources, including production materials, prices and innovations, noted Quan Heng, an economist with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. None of this is easy.

"Strong innovation, operations management and services are basic characteristics of global cities," said Quan. "To become a global center, Shanghai must find its special position in the world, which is based on its further integration into the Yangtze River Delta."

Zeng said that the booming city cluster in the Yangtze River Delta forms a solid foundation for Shanghai's rise and regional integration into a "big" Shanghai. "Shanghai is also a joining point of the Maritime Silk Road and Silk Road Economic Belt."

These are two strategies proposed by Chinese leaders to promote international trade and cooperation.

Zuo Xuejin, a demographer and councilor of the Shanghai government, said that before the central government attempts to coordinate all the city governments in the delta region, Shanghai should try to build some public infrastructure with such neighbors as Kunshan and Taicang in Jiangsu province.

Regional integration should bring with it more efficient land use and resource distribution, rather than simple expansion of the urban area.

Critics are concerned that the research project undertaken by Zeng's team will not go anywhere if the government continues to rely on revenue from land transfers and regards urbanization as the primary way to boost investment-driven growth.

Last month, the city government decided the built-up area of Shanghai will be limited to 3,226 square kilometers, and that area will not expand after 2020.

That means the city has only 156 sq km of land for new buildings in the next six years. But in the past six years, the area of built-up land in Shanghai expanded by twice that much.

Zeng must bear in mind the baselines and always be clear about researchers' limited influence on local governors in Shanghai.

Some officials have worked their way up to the central government from Shanghai. But they have not made Shanghai a reform pioneer or even a model city in China.

It is quicker to boost economic growth through increasing investment in the property market.

The easy money from land transfers also further emboldens the government to interfere with other market activities such as borrowing money.

These are all working against the government's goal of becoming a global center city. If Zeng's research does not lead to the transformation of government, the road map proposed by Zeng will be hard to follow.

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