On July 15th, 2008，Liang Guoying, vice mayor of Dongguan, announced that Dongguan would host the 12th International Awards for Liveable Communities. The 2008 Finals of the LivCom Awards, endorsed by United Nations Environment Programme, will be held at Songshan Lake Science and Technology Industry Park, Dongguan, China from November 6th to 10th.

Creating liveable communities and promoting sustainable development has become an objective shared by nations around the world. Dongguan was chosen as the host city for the LivCom Awards 2008, in part due to its adherence to China’s Scientific Outlook on Development. Over the last two decades, Dongguan’s GDP has registered an average annual growth of over 20 percent, thus leading the city to become an epitome of China’s Reform and Opening Up. As Alan Smith, Chief Executive of the LivCom Awards has pointed out, Dongguan is a major emerging city in China and a visit to Dongguan will be an exciting experience for those cities invited to participate in the Finals, and an opportunity to see International Best Practice in operation. These constitute a stepping stone towards recognition by the international community on Dongguan’s efforts to thoroughly apply the Scientific Outlook on Development.

Since its launch in 1997, the LivCom Awards has been hosted in different major cities including Madrid (Spain), Al’Ayn (United Arab Emirates), Hamamatsu (Japan), Washington D.C. (USA), and London (UK). This year, Dongguan will join Shenzhen and Hangzhou in the select group of cities having hosted the event, once more directing the international spotlight onto China. The event will add an international touch to the celebration of China’s achievements on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Reform and Opening Up.

Since Dongguan became a prefecture city in 1988, it has achieved a remarkable transition from exploring the city’s ideals to creating an ideal city. Having won the First Place in the LivCom Awards 2006 in the Whole City large population category, Dongguan underlined its status as a liveable community in the world. The award drew international attention to the substantial progress made by Dongguan in implementing the Scientific Outlook of Development. The LivCom Awards 2008 will serve as a friendly and open platform for the celebration activities of Dongguan’s 20th anniversary as a prefecture city.

With a history of 1250 years of city establishment, Dongguan has long been nurtured by the well established Lingnan culture. The city’s efforts on historical heritage preservation were rewarded by winning the Criterion Award for Heritage Management at the LivCom Awards 2006. This success accentuates the effectiveness of the Scientific Outlook on Development in terms of culture and heritage preservation. The event will also bring about an allegro to the fanfare for the celebration of Dongguan’s 1250th anniversary of city founding.

Being the first time Dongguan has ever hosted a major international environmental awards event, the city is confident that, with its incessant determination and its pursuit to build a liveable community, the event will meet the world’s expectations.

Dongguan prioritizes urban environmental construction following a scientific approach to planning, which overcomes the limitations of common city administrative division, and instead maximizes the potential of its functional clusters within the conurbation. Dongguan also prioritizes its capital expenditure towards urban environmental construction effectively restoring the balance between resources and environment. Furthermore, Dongguan sets the treatment of pollution and reduction of emission as its priority by accelerating construction of infrastructure vital for environmental protection.

Dongguan links ecological civilization to different aspects of the development of a society such as patriotic education, citizenship awareness and community involvement. This approach helps form an education mechanism for environmental protection outlined as “Raising awareness in an individual can involve the family and eventually the whole society”. This facilitates a proper ecological environment for citizens in the future.

Dongguan spares no efforts in implementing the adjustment and upgrading of its industrial structure and constantly fuels the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy. In the first 5 months of 2008, Dongguan registered a total output value of 145.54 billion yuan and total exports of 25.61 billion yuan, an increase of 16% and 23.7% respectively, compared to the same period in 2007. Moreover, the total exports growth is 8.1% higher than that of Guangdong Province. There are 30 and 96 newly established private technology-related enterprises at provincial and municipal levels, respectively. Moreover, there are 4,300 newly granted patents out of 6,000 applications; there are 408 invention patent applications, of which 38 have been approved, an increase of 49.5% and 100% respectively.

The LivCom Awards Finals falls exactly on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, when the Reform and Opening Up policy was first proposed thus marking the dawn of China’s socialist modernization. After the Beijing Olympic Games, it will be Dongguan’s opportunity to host a large-scale international event such as the LivCom Awards. The event is an excellent platform to showcase Dongguan to the world.

The LivCom Awards Finals coincides with a crucial moment for Dongguan as a candidate city for both the National Civility City and the National Environmental Protection Model City. These pursuits illustrate the constant drive of Dongguan in its quest to build a liveable ecological city and a harmonious homeland.

The hosting of the LivCom Awards corresponds also with an important time for Dongguan in its efforts to continue to emancipate the mind and further carry out the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development. Dongguan will strengthen the city’s creativity, cohesion and civility while demonstrating its charm as a liveable and harmonious city.

Dongguan is determined to make the Finals of the 12th LivCom Awards a successful event with local flare, thus creating a friendly communication platform for the delegations from around the world.

Editor: Yan