Finnish eco-city idea sparks interest in China

print this

An ambitious Finnish initiative for an environmentally friendly city has sparked considerable interest in Tianjin, a coastal urban area in the northwest of China.
     The Finns have been marketing their idea at a four-day seminar. On the opening day, the event attracted nearly 400 Chinese government and corporate representatives, including one deputy minister.
     Finnish officials and companies would like to combine their environmental know-how, and build an unprecedentedly progressive eco-city. The matter interests China, which has recently woken to the environmental implications of its rapid economic growth.
     
Tianjin Municipality, with more than ten million inhabitants, plans to spend nearly EUR 15 billion on environmental projects by 2011, says Mayor Da Xianglong.
      Da says that Finnish environmental technology is in "high demand" in new Chinese projects. Tianjin hopes to be a model region in environmental matters, and plans to build several ecologically sustainable small towns as a pilot project, says local administrator Pi Qiansheng.
     Whether or not Finnish and Chinese visions on an eco-city will coincide, will come out in negotiations this week.
     "This seminar will have a decisive significance for the project. Now we hope to move to the concrete level and get some Chinese financing into the picture", says Kari Larjava, technology director at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).
     In addition to VTT, the eco-city project is being promoted by an export project of the Ministry of Trade and Industry called the Finnish Environmental Cluster for China (FECC), which aims at marketing Finnish environmental know-how to China. About a dozen Finnish companies are taking part in the seminar.
     
There are clear signs of an environmental risk in Tianjin. The sea outside the area is seriously polluted, and there are a number of infamous "cancer villages" in the area, where emissions have caused widespread illness.
     Innovations shown by the Finnish companies include energy-efficient elevators, water purification technology, and bio-energy projects.
     There are a number of small companies involved in the seminar as well, such as Finnish Electric Vehicle Technologies (FEVT), established by Jukka Järvinen of Hikiä.
     The company's prototype of an electric-powered energy-efficient bus stood outside the hotel where the meeting was held. Järvinen said that FEVT had already held discussions with a few Chinese cities on a trial order.
     "Now we can show that this technology is real. Let's hope that it leads to orders."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland planning large eco-city near Chinese capital (2.2.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat