Singapore, Nanjing to build new eco-city

Straits Times 16 Apr 09;

HONG KONG: Singapore will embark on another joint eco-city project in China following a ground-breaking ceremony to be held likely late next month in Nanjing city, a China-funded Hong Kong newspaper reported yesterday.

The site of the eco-city project, the second in China involving the Singapore Government, will be an island in the middle of the Yangzi River called Jiangxinzhou to the south-west of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, said the Ta Kung Pao.

The Nanjing authorities have reached preliminary agreements with the Singapore Government on the construction principles, concept, plan and way of operation for the eco-city, the newspaper quoted Mr Yang Zhongnan, deputy director of the Nanjing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, as saying.

The ground-breaking ceremony is likely to be held some time between May 21 and May 23, said the Ta Kung Pao.

Although a government-led project, the eco-city is also open to private investors, added Mr Yang.

Nanjing mayor Jiang Hongkun had earlier said that the project aims to attract the world's top experts to help make the eco-city a world-class model of its kind.

In November 2007, Singapore and China signed the agreement to build the 30 sq km Tianjin eco-city in northern China.

Following that, Singapore proposed building another eco-city on a smaller scale - about 3 to 5 sq km in area - in Nanjing, said the Ta Kung Pao.