Tracy Quek, Straits Times 10 Mar 09;
BEIJING: - The global economic turmoil will have only a 'limited and short' impact on the China-Singapore eco-city project in Tianjin, a senior official said yesterday.
Construction on the first 4 sq km phase of the 50 billion yuan (S$11.3 billion) project that will showcase how economic growth can be balanced with environmental protection is well under way, Mr Gou Lijun, director of Tianjin's Binhai New Area Administrative Committee, told reporters during China's annual legislative session.
Since the project's groundbreaking last September, the city, which is being built from scratch in Tianjin's Binhai New Area, has already attracted a variety of companies and industries, including a national-level animation centre and the Huang Ming Solar Energy firm, Mr Gou said.
Tianjin's top university, Nankai, is also setting up a branch in the city. In addition, Singapore and China will collaborate to set up an environmental school there, he added.
Car giant Toyota, PetroChina and the Tianjin Beijiang power plant have also signed agreements with the eco-city. Mr Gou did not go into details.
He said that prospective buyers for more than 7,000 apartments being built in the city have been found.
This year, construction work will start on public facilities, including schools and hospitals.
To date, 10 companies have been registered and set up with an investment of 3.51 billion yuan and more projects for the eco-city are in the pipeline or being launched soon, the official Xinhua news agency reported over the weekend.
It quoted Mr Cui Guangzhi, vice-chairman of the eco-city administrative committee which plansand oversees the project, as saying that despite the economic crisis, there would be 'no change to the eco-city's construction goals, and no slowdown in pace'.
He said the eco-city will 'work hard' to attract 10 billion yuan worth of investment this year.
The eco-city is the second flagship project between Singapore and China after the Suzhou Industrial Park. It will be built over the next 15 years and eventually stretch across 30 sq km. The city will be home to 350,000 inhabitants who will live and work there.
Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who proposed the eco-city when he met Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing in April 2007, had said for it to succeed, it should be commercially viable as well as replicable elsewhere in China.
To support the development of the city, planners will build up strengths in sectors such as modern services, finance, software development as well as research and development, Mr Gou said.
