It is fortunate to be travelling with our Mayor Larry O’Brien because the cities that we are visiting put the entire management of the City in perspective before dealing with the question of sustainable economic development, my specific interest area.

Urban planning in Chongqing must not only deal with the challenge of population, it must also accept the geographic realities of a mountainous terrain and two major river systems. We are also not talking of a new city but a city first settled over 3,000 years ago. The development of a nice symmetric grid system with a gently sloping underground infrastructure is definitely not an option.

Chongqing refers to itself as a phoenix. Its geographic area does resemble the mythical bird rising into the air and the City is in the midst of a major renewal as it becomes China’s western gateway. It has developed a planning strategy of a circle with two wings. The circle represents the reconstruction of the urban core and the two wings, the development of the new regions that stretch northeast and southeast.

The redevelopment of the core is not being done as one massive project, but as a series of smaller districts, each with its own designation for concentration. For example, in the west is a large area that will house over a dozen universities.

Several of the rookies on this trip had a negative impression as we drove in from the airport to our hotel in the city’s downtown. We passed through older areas of the city, many in various stages of reconstruction. The fog and drizzle did not help.

Grey fog and mist in Chongqing

Vision for the future ....

Then came our trip to and briefing on the New North Zone. This area was farmland a few short few years ago. The region could be planned from scratch and did not face the challenges of the river gorges in the city centre.

The rookies went from wondering why we had chosen Chongqing as an area of focus, to “are we in China or in Silicon Valley?” The streetscapes, the buildings, the landscaping and even the BMW’s and Audi’s all could have been in Palo Alto. OK, the Chinese characters on the buildings and the distinct lack of sun did let you know this was China, but our Starbucks addicts never had a problem!

I have commented in the past on the Chinese commitment to the low carbon environment, and it was clearly seen in two of our meetings. Some of our delegation had visited the China Energy Conservation Investment Corporation (CECIC) in Beijing and we visited their office in Chongqing. The City is a major industrial location and does face significant challenges as it struggles to meet China’s new low carbon goals. Chongqing has been chosen by the Chinese government as the pilot large city to identify the major obstacles to meeting the low carbon targets. A major question that they are trying to address is how to identify technology solutions and link them to the market needs. CECIC is developing a platform that links market need, technology and funding. This is exactly the type of vehicle that will allow our emerging companies like Plasco, Clearford and Thermal Energy to better partner in China.

Mayor of Ottawa, Larry O'Brien makes ceremonial presentation in Chongqing

Our meeting with Chongqing Energy Investment Group also proved to be fruitful. They are one of the largest power suppliers in the region with over 2.3 million households on their grid. If you look at their challenge, they are in a market in which demand is growing both from increasing population and the movement to a new level of economic importance, and yet new standards of carbon footprint must be met. They are experimenting with a variety of clean energy alternatives, including options for energy reduction. We in Ottawa are looking at many of the same challenges, albeit at a different scale, so once again there is the enormous potential for partnership in finding and implementing solutions.

As we progress through China, it is becoming increasingly evident that we are in a global economy, with nobody having all the problems and nobody having all the solutions. Partnership and cooperation are the keys to building sustainable economies.

By Mayor Larry O’Brien

On April 6th, I embarked on a 10-day economic development mission to the Chinese cities of Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The mission, coordinated by OCRI, aims to strengthen existing relationships between our cities and to further establish Ottawa as one of China’s strategic partners.

Friday evening marked the conclusion of our delegation’s visit to the City of Beijing. We spent two short but jam-packed days in back-to-back meetings with government officials and professionals from a number of hi tech industries.

As Mayor of the City of Ottawa, my first and most important responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of the City’s residents, which means ensuring access to clean drinking water, waste management, fire and police services. But I also recognize the role of the City in ensuring the prosperity of our citizens, which means creating the kind of environment in which our citizens and companies can prosper. With that focus in mind, I am pleased to report that our mission to Beijing to promote investment and partnership opportunities was extremely successful.

On Thursday of last week I announced that Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong and I had signed a Memorandum of Understanding re-committing to the principles of our original 1999 sister-city agreement.  That was just the beginning of a waterfall of successes stemming from this mission.  OCRI has now signed a new agreement with the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau, and the Ottawa companies who are participating in this mission have had a number of successful meetings with potential customers, investors and partners. I was very pleased to see Tourism Ottawa sign a collaboration agreement with Badaling Special Zone Administration, the managers of the Great Wall of China.

The goal of our visit to Beijing was to promote partnerships in the areas of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Cleantech. For that reason, we were delighted to hear about Beijing’s commitment to building a world-class environmentally sustainable city when we visited the Beijing Urban Planning Exhibition. We met with the Beijing Energy-Saving and Environmental Protection Center where we were introduced to their impressive plans and programs for meeting the goals of the city.  During that meeting, we received confirmation that a delegation from Beijing will be traveling to Ottawa to meet with a broad range of our Cleantech companies.  This is important given the ongoing negotiations between the City of Beijing and Plasco regarding the  implementation of a waste-to-electricity facility in Beijing based on the leading-edge solution which has been developed and demonstrated in Ottawa.

Our delegation also had the privilege of attending and participating in the ICT and Cleantech Cross-Investment Seminar at Z-Park which included presentations by Canadian investment groups like Wesley Clover and Cleantech Capital. It was there that we learned of Huawei’s plans to significantly increase the number of people in their Ottawa R&D centre.

While the focus of our mission is clearly business development, it was a pleasure last evening to be hosted by Mayor Guo at a banquet where we were able to talk frankly about the role of Mayors in our two cultures and the tremendous opportunities of our bilateral relationship. As we begin to emerge from the global economic recession and move forward in a new economy, China has emerged as the key global market- 1.3 billion people, an impressive education system and strong economic growth.  Business partnerships with China will continue to become a more integral part of our economic progress both here in Ottawa and across the country.

My hope is that this mission will continue to provide opportunities to strengthen relationships, and that by working together we can further grow the prosperity of the people of both Ottawa and Beijing.

-30-