Exploration on Strengthening City Competitiveness and Improving Urban Governance in the Age of Ecological Civilization

Abstract

In this interview, Ye Yumin, the interviewee, first clarifies basic concepts of Economics such as Urban Economics, a city’s economy, and industrial structure upgrading, and points out that, to most Chinese cities, the failure of industrial structure upgrading and new driving force fostering largely is due to their inadequate labor force structure. She argues that today’s primary task of China's urbanization is to ensure people’s overall well-being, encourage their activity and cultivate talents, accumulating human capital to support the continuous upgrading of industrial structure and developing new driving forces. Ye further argues that, in the age of Ecological Civilization, urban planners and designers play an important role in strengthening cities’ competitiveness with inclusive renewal and design concepts, while highlighting that China’s new reform of a Super-Ministry System is in line with contemporary needs to improve the overall competitiveness of the country in the future and to safeguard the public interests. Finally, by recognizing the application scopes of the both topdown Management mode and bottom-up Governance mode, Ye articulates that all problems in China’s PPP cases are caused by the poor credibility of both public and private parties, and a sound credibility system and mechanism is urgently required, which would define duties of both parties.