Photo: City-Infrastructure-Forum1

China tackles infrastructure challenges through new forum

09 September 2013

by Richard Forster

The City Infrastructure Forum, China opened today in Chongqing, drawing more than 150 delegates including 85 senior officials from Chinese cities. Keynote speakers at the opening session stressed the pressing need for cities to exchange ideas and incorporate the latest environmental thinking and technology into every aspect of urban life.

“With the world’s urbanisation rate well over 50 percent, we need to discuss ways of developing our city infrastructure in accordance with the eco-system,” said Huang Qifan, Mayor of Chongqing.

In an opening address setting the tone of the conference, he cited the constant struggle to balance the giant city’s ecological and economic needs. He explained how the Yangtze River which flows through the city, was being cleaned, along with the surrounding countryside. At the same time, thousands of kilometres of new road and rail infrastructure had reduced local regional journey times and cut the time it took for rail cars to reach western Europe by two weeks or more. The mid-western Chinese city, he added, was projected to grow to 30 million people by the year 2020 when local urbanisation rates would encompass 70 percent of the population.

Jatin V. Modi, former mayor of the Indian city of Vadadora and current President of the All India Institute of Local Self  Government, said such challenges made it even more important for cities to cooperate more closely than  ever before. Speaking in his capacity as President of UCLG-ASPAC, the largest city and local government association in Asia-Pacific, Dr Modi said: “Local government is the base route of democracy. Local government must be responsive in a fully participatory fashion to promote a green economy. This forum comes at an opportune time.”

Modi said most urban problems stemmed from a lack of policies and programmes to develop infrastructure– roads, water drainage and sewage, as well as social infrastructure such as education, health, science and technology.

“Asia requires more than US$100 billion annual investment for coming decades but only US$40 billion has come so far from development banks and other donors,” said Modi.

Several speakers at the forum, including industry partner Alexon Khor, Shell’s General Manager for Low Carbon Solutions, cited the concept of ‘smart’ solutions for smart cities. From touch cards in modern transport systems, to the economy, smartphone applications, the living environment and local government, smart technologies call for closer cooperation to exchange the latest ideas.

Joining the mayor in welcoming delegates, Li Xiaolin, President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) said China’s urbanisation remains a severe challenge.

Li Xiaolin (right), President of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, greets special guests prior to the opening ceremony
Li Xiaolin (right), President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, greets special guests prior to the opening ceremony

“Our organisation was established in 1955, and in the past 60 years we have already established friendly relationships with 500 organisations in more than 100 cities in the region,” said Madame Li. “This forum is a great opportunity to build cooperation between international organisations and China.”

Besides Shell, UCLG-ASPAC and CPAFFC, some of the organisations participating in the conference included business sector partners such as Schneider Electric, Siemens, ARUP, AECOM and Oracle, and the international organisations C40 Cities, the World Bank, Clean Air Asia, EMBARQ, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and  the European Union Chamber of Commerce.

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