Services, integrated industries key to new urban expansion
JC Group, a financier turned real estate developer, is exploring an innovative path in urban expansion, campaigning for the sustainable, eco-friendly growth of small towns.
The company headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and Suzhou, Jiangsu province, has integrated the growth of local pillar industries into its urban project designs, rather than merely focusing on property development.
It has signed agreements relating to 58 themed town projects nationwide. The projects will mainly focus on modern services and will develop local industry and agriculture to form a national town network, representatives from the company said.
After construction on the towns is completed, visitors will be able to enjoy the captivating scenery of Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, in the spring. They will have the opportunity to learn about Canada’s Quebecois centuryold music and architecture arts in a town in Jiangsu province in summer. On winter days, they can visit an ice and snow town in Changchun, Jilin province.
Wei Jie, founder of the group, said among the themed towns, nearly 50 will center on cultural tourism, developing supportive sectors such as healthcare, education, hospitality and entertainment.
JC Group’s projects drew significant attention at a seminar covering the construction of such towns and regional economic development, held in Beijing last month.
Zhou Kaibo, from a research institute of the International Cooperation Center at the National Development and Reform Commission, said he approves of JC Group’s model that begins with services, especially cultural sectors.
Zhou said a town achieves significance when the environment and living conditions are improved, internet technology is used and residents have a sense of pride, satisfaction and happiness.
In the era of themed towns, it is necessary to make both local residents and visitors feel happy, Zhou added.
Yang Yongheng, associate dean at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University, said that such projects, including those of JC Group, add to the collective national experience in constructing themed towns.
“I especially appreciate the efforts JC Group is making,” Yang said.
JC Group said that by hosting the seminar, it hoped more people would learn about the core and future of the towns’ economic development, and that people from different fields will pay sustained attention to the great undertaking.
A streetlight town project in Gaoyou, Jiangsu, held its groundbreaking ceremony on Aug 28. Local companies produce 70 percent of the nation’s street lighting and JC Group hopes to bring digitization technology to the town.
The group plans to put intelligent chips into streetlights to enable them to transmit data and play videos. It will be possible for pedestrians to charge their cell phones via USB ports in the poles, representatives from JC Group said.
An intelligent industrial park town in Huaian, Jiangsu — which hosted its groundbreaking ceremony in June — has launched a smart electric cooker. The appliance is equipped with an online video application called Youxiang and users can watch videos on the cooker’s display screen while making dinner.
As for agriculture, JC Group emphasizes innovation, research and development, and high-quality brands. Construction on a crawfish-featured town project in Jiangsu began in May. JC Group plans to develop a whole crawfish industrial chain in the town.
On the basis of aquaculture and processing, the group plans to foster the service industry including R&D, vocational and technical education, crawfish trading markets and catering.
Wei said crawfish are currently a popular food across the country, but related quality standards and grading systems have not been established.
JC Group will emphasize standards and systems while developing the town, and will place brands, quantity and quality at the forefront of the development process, together with the local governments, he said.
The company said it hopes that developing sectors will meet economic and spiritual needs in such featured towns.