At the end of 2001, Guangzhou, the capital of south China's
Guangdong Province won the title of "International Garden City." On
May 26, it was again awarded the title of "Best Practice to Improve
the Living Environment of the United Nations" and nominated to
compete for the globally recognized highest
Dubai
International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living
Environment in June.
How can Guangzhou's urban construction win more and more
international recognition within a short period of half a year? A
People's Daily reporter recently had an interview with some review
committee members of the Dubai International Award whose viewpoints
may give a clue.
Reporter: "Guangzhou has won the Best Practice title and
been selected as one of the forty candidate programs. How do you
think about Guangzhou's application?
You Jianhua (the UN's director of Best Practice and Policy
Department): All members of the Technological Advisory
Committee are surprised to see Guangzhou's progress. Just a few
years ago, Guangzhou was still seriously troubled by a range of
problems such as transportation and city management. But now these
problems are well solved. The measures adopted by the city include
developing public transportation and rail transportation, building
up a municipal road system and giving space to bicycles. Many
rapidly developing countries in the world also face similar
problems, but few of them have adopted such an integral and
comprehensive solution.
Compared with five or ten years ago, Guangzhou has also made
surprising achievements in the living area, city public greenbelt
and the Pearl River bed environment improvement.
Reporter: Does the TAC have any advice to offer Guangzhou's
urban management?
Lee Seung-Bok (professor in architecture of the University of
Sungkyunkwan, Korea): "This is the first time I visited
Guangzhou, and it gave me a special impression. Guangzhou has
excellent buildings. The banks of the Pearl River are also
beautiful and attractive to tourists. Additionally, I find
Guangzhou citizens full of confidence. It seems that the urban
environment improvement of Guangzhou makes citizens confident of
the future."
Reporter: "Among the forty candidates, four are from China,
quite a big ratio. Does that have something to do with the fact
that the conference will be held in China? Which candidate from
China do you think will win the Dubai International Award?
Chen Xiaoli (UN Human Settlement expert, president of the first
review committee): "This is a good question as well as a hard
one to answer. Why China has so many candidate programs has no
bearing on the venue. It's not a surprise to see so many Good
Practices and Best Practices emerge in China since it is hard to
find other similar places that could develop so fast within so
short a time. I think I can say 'the whole of China is now a big
construction site.' I remember Mr. Wu Liangyong once said 'This is
a great and unprecedented era that we can see the realization of so
many programs in so short a time.' As a planner, it is fortunate
for me to be part of this great era. China's situation is rare to
see in other places in the world. As a result, China has so many
programs nominated. As we will not go through the final review, we
dare not to forecast which program will win. But we are confident
that Chinese cities can win out."
One important factor the international review committee takes into
consideration is the policy changes of the government. I still
remember some slogans by some local governments such as "economic
development is primary, environmental protection is secondary" or
"pollution first and rectification later." Now "sustainable
development" has been a basic policy of the Chinese government.
Moreover, remarkable progresses have been seen in many Chinese
cities including Guangzhou.
Reporter: "Guangzhou is awarded as the Best Practice. What
is Guangzhou's superiority and exemplary significance?"
Chen Xiaoli: "Its exemplary role lies in Guangzhou's
approach to problems. Instead of taking mere palliatives, it
adopted comprehensive measures to solve its traffic problems. The
municipal government and all citizens have made joint efforts in
implementing these measures instead of just drafting them, and
therefore, achieved excellent results with small input. In
addition, Guangzhou has improved the living and investment
environment while developing its economy. The magnitude and depth
of Guangzhou's change is a prominent reason for its nomination.
Last but not the least, even the Best Practice honor doesn't mean
perfect. With six cities winning Best Practice title and four
nominated for the Best Forty candidate program, though, China has a
lot of problems to be solved in improving the living environment.
These selected Best Practices will introduce good experience to
China and other cities in the world.
The reporter also had interview with Vice Mayor Shen Ponian. Shen
said with excitement that this nomination means the international
recognition of Guangzhou's achievements in urban construction and
this is an honor to Guangzhou and Guangzhou's citizens.
Shen Ponian said that to build Guangzhou into a city suitable for
living has always been an important goal of the municipal
government. While improving the urban environment, Guangzhou began
to target at the Best Practice Honor to Improve Living Environment
of the UN. In 1999, Guangzhou invited the Dubai municipal
government delegation to visit the city and sent a work group to
visit Dubai last year.
After sufficient preparations, the municipal government decided to
apply for 2002 Best Practice Award with the program of "Guangzhou's
Five-year Action in Comprehensive Improvement of the Urban
Environment," highlighting Guangzhou's experience and achievement
in solving hot spot issues and environment issues of great concern
to its citizens. The application work began in February. All
materials required were prepared and submitted in March with the
recommendation of the Ministry of Construction.
The reasons to choose Guangzhou as the venue involve the support
from the Ministry of Construction and the strong recommendation
from Dubai city, Guangzhou's friendship city in United Arab
Emirates, according to the mayor.
Shen Ponian said three reasons might be cited for Guangzhou's
nomination. First, Guangzhou citizens have stronger awareness of
environmental protection. As Guangzhou's economy develops rapidly
and Guangzhou citizens' educational level keeps rising, local
residents shift their focus of attention from eating and drinking
to environmental protection and living environment improvement.
They have higher anticipation towards the environment and building
up a pleasant environment has been the common aspiration of all
Guangzhou citizens.
Secondly, the municipal government put the goal of building
Guangzhou into a city suitable for living high on its work agenda.
Environmental protection enjoys an equal status with economic
development. Guangzhou's success is the result of joint efforts by
the municipal government and all citizens.
Thirdly, Guangzhou's overall economic strength has increased
substantially in recent years. The government is now able to
allocate some 15 billion yuan (US$1.81 billion) annually to improve
environment. Without such strong investment, Guangzhou can never
achieve this feat. Shen Ponian said that the municipality will
increase input and adopt more measures to improve the living
environment.
(China.org.cn by Alex Xu June 24, 2002)