Guangzhou received on September 14 the International Best Base Award for its strategic planning at the 46th Congress of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) held in Keya, becoming the first Chinese city to win this most prestigious global award for a city.
Back in 2000, Guangzhou became the first Chinese city to prepare a strategic conceptual plan for the city's development, ushering in the era of strategic planning for Chinese cities. Over the last decade, Guangzhou's GDP has soared 230 percent, and residents in the high-density urban center have spread out to the suburban new districts, leading to a 30 percent surge in the use of land for development purposes.
According to the jury of the award, Guangzhou has fully drawn upon the beneficial experience of nations around the world in preparing strategic urban development plans since the 1960s, and conducted in-depth institutional innovation of such experience in the context of China's socio-economic reality; and
Guangzhou's models for preparing and executing strategic plans have merits for reference by developing cities around the around and dovetail with the congress's theme of "Sustainable City / Developing World". Guangzhou's planning is described to boil down to "innovation, dynamic upgrading, forward-looking research, extensive public involvement, and application of advanced technologies".
Source: english.gz.gov.cn
