Lessons from Shenzhen City

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
Shenzhen is a modern Chinese city with super infrastructural developments that have transformed it from country side communities of traditional Chinese fishing villages within 35 years.
You will also not believe that it had a population of only 300,000 up to 1985 before its economic transformation to 20 million people now generating $US303.37 billion annually.
Today the city has so transformed that no trace of the old fishing village communities trace can be found. Instead you find skyscrapers, railways, road networks with a bridge connecting Hong Kong, coordinated drainage that drains out flooded roads, hotels and other super infrastructural developments.
It has seven world class universities, six in states and colleges where quality education in business, technology and other professions are offered. It also boasts world class industrial plants where steel is produced and a leading information and technology company Huawei has its manufacturing and headquarters there. But it’s not a jungle of glass, steel and concrete; the municipal authority ensures a healthy growth of trees and flowering plants along all roads.
One of main contributing factions to Shenzhen’s transformation is that the Chinese Government has encouraged people from other parts of China to migrate there with whatever skills and knowledge they had. And they cooperated with the locals to help contribute to the city’s economic transformation. Not only that; young engineers were encouraged to go overseas and work with leading engineers in international industrialised countries like Japan and Germany.
These engineers then returned to work in the city with Chinese companies in developing their own brand in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, building and construction materials, chemical production and processing, computer software, electronics assembly and manufacturing, instruments and industrial equipment production, medical equipment and supplies, research and development and telecommunications equipment.
In 2016, National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop signed a sister city arrangement between Port Moresby and Shenzhen in his vision to transform Port Moresby to become like Shenzhen.
And Port Moresby too has a similar historical background as Shenzhen where it was just a fishing village (Hanuabada) when Captain John Moresby arrived in 1888.
Port Moresby was then a colonial outpost under the Australian Government and development took place with the establishment of the British and later Australian colonial administration and business houses to support the population. And just like Shenzhen city, people from other areas of the country and other countries began to migrate to the city to find work and also to do business.
And the immigration trend is still going on till now and contributing to the city’s development.
By 1975 when Port Moresby was declared the capital of Papua New Guinea, it had some improvement with a few high rise buildings , basic domestic and international wharves, limited road and drainage network that constantly had traffic jams and over-flooded drains during heavy rain, housing problems leading to increasing squatter settlements without electricity, sanitation and water, over crowed schools, clinics and hospital, poorly organised public transport, influx of immigrants with few job prospects leading to a spate of crime rate, lack of resources and logistics for the police force and problems related to poor city planning.
And so Parkop had a vision to really transform Port Moresby into a super-city and also to change people’s attitudes.
Thus Investments are being made in roads, school and markets and sports complex so people will have pride in these developments and change their attitudes.
This year the National Capital District Commission secured K120 million from the Shenzhen city municipal government to develop education and road infrastructure in Port Moresby.
The infrastructure developments in the Moresby South electorate include the establishment of the Butuka College for K90 million and the upgrading of the Scratchley Road for K30 million.
Parkop said Port Moresby should learn from how Shenzhen city transformed from a rural fishing town to a modern city within 30 years.