'City of Design' leads the way
By Cheng Yingqi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-12 10:06
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Shenzhen's "City of Design" Creative Industrial Park hosts over 160 design companies. Lu Hanxin / Xinhua |
"By 2015, the design and innovation industry will become the leading industry of Shenzhen, and further enhance the city's influence as the City of Design," said Wang Rong, secretary of the Guangdong Party committee, during a speech at the Creative Cities Network 2010 Shenzhen International Conference held on Monday and Tuesday.
The Creative Cities Network, launched by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2004, included 27 international cities, who shared their experiences and looked to create new opportunities for each other.
Shenzhen was presented the "City of Design" award by UNESCO on Dec 8, 2008. The Shenzhen government's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) intends to develop the creative and cultural industries into pillars of the national economy.
Shenzhen's design and innovation industry grew from 8.5 billion yuan ($1.28 billion) in 2003 to 24.5 billion yuan in 2008.
In 2009, the number of related business increased nearly 30 percent, innovation enterprises now comprising 10 percent of the 300,000 companies in Shenzhen.
"The traditional understanding of design as part of the culture industry was one-sided," said Zheng Shuyang, deputy head of the Academy of Arts and Design at Tsinghua University. "The design and innovation industry actually includes every aspect of the relation between humans and nature, and between people and the world."
Traffic jams are an example of this. Designers take note of various factors, such as population, the highway system, public transit and the automotive industry into consideration when designing a new city.
"The concept is to reorganize the resources of a city in a more effective way," Zheng said, "and it represents the world's development trend."
"The City of Design title was just the first step for Shenzhen," Georges Poussin, head of the Division of Arts and Cultural Enterprise of UNESCO, was quoted as saying. "As a booming city, Shenzhen can develop creative tourism and provide new ideas for other cities."
Poussin added the city could also apply to UNESCO's culture sector for the "World Book Capital City" honor.