Planning Sustainable Cities

The two economic strategies discussed here are the Town of Victoria Park Economic Development Strategy and Vancouver 2020 Greenest City Plan

Town of Victoria Park Economic Development Strategy

Victoriapark (2018) explains that the Victoria town is among the very popular places of Perth, known for its culturally diverse lifestyle and being Perth’s primary sports and entertainment zone. The city has prospered and has experienced like May Australian cities by global trends and dynamics of the Australian economy. The plan’s punch line is “Time to Grow”It is important to understand the primary focus of the investment strategy and the need for such a plan. Perth and WesternAustralia have reliant primarily upon minerals and energy; and agriculture for their economy, which has transformed them economically, and made the cities prosperous than other Australian regions.

In order to diversify the economy, this economic and investment plan has been chalked out to avoid the volatility of small range of economic activities and to make them as diverse as possible as it can also be seen in the case of Arab countries which were reliant on crude oil and natural gas but are now aiming towards other avenues of economy for sustainableeconomic development and avoid any economic crisis and volatility and to deliver a strong and more diverse economy for the town. As the economy has been decided to diversified there are numerous opportunities to investments.

Subjects/Objects of Development/Opportunities

Growing population- The population is increasing and the youth 25 to 34 consists 24%.
Increasingly multicultural- The town is going multicultural with time. English, Mandarin, Italian, Cantonese are languages spoken.
Higher educated- compared to the rest of Perth, the town witness higher percentage of formally educated people and lower percentage of without formal qualifications.
Household- 67% of the people is 1 or 2 person households.
People live more closely and densely here compared to adjacent zones.
55% of the people work in the professional, technical. Administrative or trade.
Gross regional product (GDP of town) is $6.28 b which is 2.6% of whole state’s GRP.
77% of the people travel outside the town to work (Victoriapark2018).
4500 local businesses generating around 40,000 jobs (Economy.id 2019).

Sectors Targeted

Tourism, sports, leisure, events, retail, hospitality, biopharmaceuticals, knowledge industry (Victoriapark 2018).

Key actions identified

Making effective leadership and coordination and partnerships, identification of the investment sectors within the pathways, connections from local to global level (Yourthoughtsn n.d.), development of smart towns- innovation and digitalization, creation of an enabling business environment, identified some high value precincts and work towards making them industry priority centers, working on high value sectors identified (Victoriapark 2018).

Value Proposition to Investors

Offering attractive business environment in the clusters and the zones which are identified to be made smart and investor friendly with friendly regulatory framework, policies, laws and rules (Youthoughts n.d.). The strategy has planned to create such a dynamic environment which will encourage investors which includes regular dialogues, partnerships with businesses, institutions and local community. Also, some of the advantages the investors will enjoy mentioned in opportunities section.

The most important value proposition and desirability of a business is human resource which is formally educated here. Secondly, the diverse cultural people offers a variety of business opportunities and residents will be ready to work in the town as mostly they are employedoutside the town (Victoriapark2018). Thirdly most of the expenses of business can be saved as town is densely populated and GRP of the town shows its potential. These advantages will prove to be a boon for the businesses which will be a good opportunity, fourthly, the town’s GRP is attractive enough for businesses environment as it is $6.28 b which has the potential to be an industrial and economy hub for Perth.

Vancouver Greenest City Plan 2020

The concept of sustainable development has gained most importance among governments today. It is the principle of development for meeting current developmental needs while sustaining the needs of the future generations (Mensah 2019). The strategy is to create opportunities today to the fullest while building a strong economy, inclusive neighbor and making a city which is recognized internationally as green city and which can meet the needs of the generations today and tomorrow.

Subjects of Development/Opportunities

Green economy
Green transportation
Leadership in climate change
Green buildings
Zero waste
Access to nature
Lighter carbon footprint
Clean water
Clean air
Local food (Greenestcity 2020)

Sectors Targeted

Vancouver city green plan 2020 aims at bringing the greenhouse gas emission levels to 5% below the 1990 levels (Greenestcity 2020).

Infrastructure, transformation of the business work processes, environment, solid and liquid waste management, value creation out of waste, renewable energy sector (Greenestcity 2020).

Value Proposition to Investors

Investor friendlypolicies and rules- The city is aiming to develop certain policies which are simple and raise needs and requirements constantly and in predictable order to reduce uncertainty for investors, businesses and market (Gratian, 2016).

Financial apparatus and incentives to green establishments- The city plan has provided for ways and systems to address such concerns of affordability and justifiable efficiency, and to increase the green development programs in a faster pace like the Home energy Loan program (UNhabitat 2009).

Capacity building- The city has a position by which it can bring together varied groups and can make partnerships to ensure skilled workforce.

Research and development infrastructure aimed at innovative ideas and policies to the development of the Green city plan.

High incentives for going green in the processes.

Making the majority (over 50%) of trips by foot, bicycle, and public transit (Greenestcity 2020).

The investors will be included in the planning process and the development strategy with the other stakeholders as a broad framework for stakeholders say has been planned. The investors have diverse opportunities to invest in areas, it’s a big advantage, though the disadvantage lies in the fact that going green in processes mat is a little costly, but the city plan has provided lucrative incentives.

The actions of the plans are regularly monitored and reported by the City economic committee on the 75 ground levels actions outlined and will be reported to the research team to further adapt the plan according to the changes.

Two Recommendations to the Swan Hill City Council

The economic plan should be divided into bigger and smaller goals and plans and regular reporting of the smaller goals to make changes and adaptation to the bigger goals.
Establishment of mini forests within the locality and small business clusters like Special economic zones so that optimum and efficient facilities are provided to the investors.

Conclusion on Economic Development Strategies

The two city councils economic plans have been identified and been reviewed on the basis of their economic strategic plans and it has been concluded that the two plans have their own genuine approach on the basis of their goals and their processes and further city councils can learn the prototype made by these two for their own strategic economic plans. The two city councils plans mixed with UN Habitat plan can prove to be very helpful in the development plans for a city council.

References for Economic Development Strategies

Brisbane City council n.d. Photo gallery. Online (Available at) https://yoursay.brisbane.qld.gov.au/VP/photos/63535

Economy.id.com.au. 2019. About the area. Town of Victoria Park Online (Available at) https://economy.id.com.au/victoria-park/about

Gratian, M. 2016 Vancouver- a renewable city p.1-2 Online (Available at) https://urbanizehub.com/vancouver-renewable-city/

Greenestcity. 2020. Vancouver greenest city 2020 action plan pp.10-72.

Mensah, J. 2019. Sustainable development: meaning, history, principles, pillars, and implications for human action: literature review. Cogent Social Sciences 5(1) p.4. Online (Available at) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2019.1653531

UNhabitat. 2009. Planning sustainable cities. Global Report on Human Settlements 2009. pp.10-20.

Victoriapark.wa.gov.au. 2018 Town of victoria park economic development strategy: Pathways to growth 2018 – 2023 pp.1-18 Online (Available at) https://www.victoriapark.wa.gov.au/Business/Economic-Development/Economic-Development-Strategy#:~:text=The%20Town%20of%20Victoria%20Park,valuable%20contributions%20from%20local%20businesses.

Youthoughts.victoriapark.wa.gov.au n.d. Economic development strategy: Pathways to Growth 2018 – 2023. Online (Available at) https://yourthoughts.victoriapark.wa.gov.au/economic-development-strategy

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