Dongtan Eco-City “Shouldn’t be a Marketing Tool”, Top Planners Warn.

The proposed development of the World’s first eco-city, Dongtan, has come under new scrutiny with further speculation surrounding its actual ecological credentials. Dongtan is yet to be built, but already is heavily hyped. The city’s rapidly growing appreciation among many developed countries, especially Britain, is accompanied by uprising controversy of its real purpose. Slated as a marketing instrument and a push for China in the competition to get on the green ‘fast-train’, instead Dongtan should be viewed as a positive step in relieving Chinese environmental pressure. The great political and ideological intentions the project portrays have been widely recognized and its status as a potential branding strategy for Shanghai is coming to light.The future of Dongtan lies in moving away from the view of it as a marketing tool. Development costs are high as is the marketing value of such a project and its success will only show through if the new ecological running costs are sufficiently lower. Nonetheless, Dongtan remains “one of the most innovative and outstanding buildings in Asia” an award from the MIPIM in Hong Kong, last November (2007).

Bowerman, G. Dongtan Eco-City “Shouldn’t be a Marketing Tool”, Top Planners Warn.

Source: http://www.bizchina-update.com/content/view/505/2/

Changing China- China Open to UK Business

The UK’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has flown to China on a 3day visit to witness the ways in which China are planning for a more sustainable future. Highlights of his trip will include visiting a new, unopened gas-fired power station, Taiyang Gong, in a residential district of Beijing as well as becoming one of the first VIP visitors to the stadium that will host the 2008 Olympics. He will then travel to Shanghai, to meet students, discuss sustainablility and be shown plans for Dongtan eco-city, which aims to act as a blueprint for future development in the UK, especially in London. The British Prime Minister may find however, that while officials are committed to such positive change, implementation of such vision may be difficult.
China remains a poor, industrialising country and therefore fulfilling the economic needs of today’s population still gains priority over protecting the environment of tomorrow. Two new power stations are reportedly opened every week somewhere in China, with coal being used as two thirds of their energy needs, just adding to their smoke pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
There needs to be a move away from resource driven industries in order to combat much of the environmental deterioration occurring presently.
Interest from Gordon Brown has hopefully opened Chinese response to climate change as a global problem. His trip intends to bring a new vitality to Chinese relations and has ensured him that there is huge opportunity for British business in this nation. During his visit, he has also offered the country £50m from an Environmental Transformation fund to help tackle climate change by improving technological efficiency and increasing the use of clean coal, renewable sources and carbon capture systems. He does not doubt that the Chinese are aware of the impacts they currently pose on the environmental system and strategies like the development of Dongtan, are steps towards a better, cleaner future.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7194864.stm

Shanghai Plans Eco-metropolis on its Mudflats

Dongtan is hailed as the beginning of a neo-industrial revolution, a major development the Chinese are embarking on as a turning point in the country’s frenetic, unsustainable urban growth. The biggest and most ambitious project China has ever undertaken, even bigger than the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Dongtan apparently holds the potential to change the course of global economic development. Acting as a hopeful prototype for future urban development across the globe, its roots lie in China, the world’s most populous country.
Developers aim to produce a post-industrial sustainable city that poses no appreciable damage to the Earth’s environment. Self-sufficiency (utilising only renewable energy sources) will be implemented in many public sectors, buildings, food supply, medical care, and transport will be available only by hydrogen or electric cars. Employment will be light industrial and high technology.
Albeit a promising project, much criticism and controversy arises regarding Dongtan’s development on the silted estuary of the Yangtze river, Chongming Island. This is a geologically young area, growing 25 feet per year through silt deposition, currently supporting farmland and small communities of rural preasants and fishermen. Much produce cultivated in the region culminates in Shanghai, feeding the demanding population. The prospect of ruining this ecologically unspoilt area shocks many people, but directors ensure us that the developers have potential impact under control and long-term benefits will outweigh any short-term risks.
The Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC) is developing a million dollar prospectus, inviting private investors to the new eco-city. Dongtan may be the home to many international organisations, striving to increase environmental awareness. Many of the current population disagree with the trans-national corporations that may soon be located on their doorsteps.
Dongtan must comply with Chinese authorities, however. Conforming to the Chinese Business melange of Confucianism, Daoism and communism, one of Dongtan’s ultimate priorities is to ‘create inclusive, cohesive and tolerant communities that recognize traditional and modern Chinese and other cultural values’. The reality of Dongtan also largely lies in the synthesis of economic development, environmental responsibility and financial profitability.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/jan/08/china.theobserver