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Home » Opinion » Foreign Views
Water urban deserts to grow innovation
By Shahid Yusufand Kaoru Nabeshima |
January 21, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MOST innovation takes place in a few large cities and a lot hangs on what kind of people live in the city and visit the city, how they interact, float and exchange ideas.
Large cities have the edge over smaller ones in terms of avenues for pursuing entrepreneurial options.
Those open cities which attract many visitors and migrants from within the country and abroad, are doubly advantaged by the influx and circulation of diverse ideas and talent.
The experience of the United States suggests that consumer amenities are the most effective way of building the skilled workforce, which is invaluable under any set of circumstances but most especially when industrial change is in the offing.
Shanghai has the advantages of size and in China it is a city that attracts many visitors. It is also a city in the throes of change and this is where great care is needed in order to create a socio-cultural environment and an urban aesthetic that will buttress the productive innovation system the city wants.
Insufficient attention to forward-looking urban planning is leading in one major city after another to single-function zones, emphasis on automobile-mobility, urban sprawl (and dormitory suburbs), elevated expressways, hundreds of residential tower blocks devoid of recreational amenities, shopping malls, gated communities and segregation by income.
A continuing adjustment of the hukou system might be needed to ensure the flow of high-quality human capital from elsewhere in China, and from abroad. Shanghai's fourth reform of the hukou system announced in February 2009 took another step towards easing the constraints on obtaining a resident's status and accruing benefits.
The dynamic global city of tomorrow should be compact to facilitate the use of public transport and encourage a healthier, walking lifestyle, industrially balanced, energy-frugal, well-connected nationally and with international urban nodes.
It should also have numerous mixed-use neighborhoods, which maximize use of land and infrastructure and can induce an environment that minimizes criminal activity.
These neighborhoods should also have the cultural and recreational amenities that enhance quality of life.
In its haste to modernize, Shanghai might lose sight of these objectives, but it needs remembering that "urban deserts" do not breed innovation.
(The authors are experts from the World Bank. The article is reproduced with permission from the China office of the World Bank. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.)
Large cities have the edge over smaller ones in terms of avenues for pursuing entrepreneurial options.
Those open cities which attract many visitors and migrants from within the country and abroad, are doubly advantaged by the influx and circulation of diverse ideas and talent.
The experience of the United States suggests that consumer amenities are the most effective way of building the skilled workforce, which is invaluable under any set of circumstances but most especially when industrial change is in the offing.
Shanghai has the advantages of size and in China it is a city that attracts many visitors. It is also a city in the throes of change and this is where great care is needed in order to create a socio-cultural environment and an urban aesthetic that will buttress the productive innovation system the city wants.
Insufficient attention to forward-looking urban planning is leading in one major city after another to single-function zones, emphasis on automobile-mobility, urban sprawl (and dormitory suburbs), elevated expressways, hundreds of residential tower blocks devoid of recreational amenities, shopping malls, gated communities and segregation by income.
A continuing adjustment of the hukou system might be needed to ensure the flow of high-quality human capital from elsewhere in China, and from abroad. Shanghai's fourth reform of the hukou system announced in February 2009 took another step towards easing the constraints on obtaining a resident's status and accruing benefits.
The dynamic global city of tomorrow should be compact to facilitate the use of public transport and encourage a healthier, walking lifestyle, industrially balanced, energy-frugal, well-connected nationally and with international urban nodes.
It should also have numerous mixed-use neighborhoods, which maximize use of land and infrastructure and can induce an environment that minimizes criminal activity.
These neighborhoods should also have the cultural and recreational amenities that enhance quality of life.
In its haste to modernize, Shanghai might lose sight of these objectives, but it needs remembering that "urban deserts" do not breed innovation.
(The authors are experts from the World Bank. The article is reproduced with permission from the China office of the World Bank. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.)
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