at the time of BOMA China's invitation that there would be about 250 indus- try
members present, on the day of the presentation that number had bal- looned to
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President’s Report
Commercial Real Estate in China By William G.R. Partridge, CAE, President & Chief Staff Officer
M
y good fortune had it that BOMA China invited me as their guest to deliver a presentation to the Chinese Real Estate Network Conference in Beijing. This would be my first trip to China, and the prospect to see a different country, its people and its culture was very exciting. I happened to arrive in Beijing during a period of the worst smog in history; a face mask would not entirely protect me from the negative effects. A person with respiratory difficulties would certainly struggle. Situated on a fluvial plain and surrounded by mountains to the north, this city of some 20 million persons is quite susceptible to smog when there is an inversion such as there was during my visit. The subject of this conference was health and safety in the built environment. BOMA Calgary, along with others associations, companies and the Alberta provincial government, had created a guide – Recommended Practices in Health and Safety: a guide for building owners and managers. With permission, BOMA China had created its own version of the guide, which served as a point of reference at the conference. On this trip, I was invited by the Chinese to deliver a keynote address on health and safety. My theme was simply: health and safety is good business. My presentation covered the underlying drivers behind our health and safety guide and what it has meant for our industry and our association. As a trade association representing the commercial building ownership community, BOMA seeks continuous ways to create value for its members. BOMA has committed itself to promoting excellence in our industry, such as defining industry best practices for vari-
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There are no words to describe Beijing adequately and convey the true sense of its character. ous aspects of the industry. Our health and safety guide is just one example of BOMA fulfilling this goal. There was surprisingly broad interest amongst the Chinese real estate community. While I had been briefed at the time of BOMA China’s invitation that there would be about 250 industry members present, on the day of the presentation that number had ballooned to 540. (Factoid: There are 75 million people involved in real estate in China.) The presentation was followed by two separate media interviews on the subject. I must say, beyond the language and translation issues, there was very intense interest in the subject matter. I was suitably impressed. China is seeking business legitimacy by adopting some western standards and gaining recognition. The business sector is highly competitive with each player doing what they can to get a leg-up on the other guy. Beijing is a bustling city just as you would expect of any major international capital. The population is in the realm of 20 million. One can only imagine what the planning, infrastructure and servicing needs would be. And the city is coming of age. It has many new and interesting building and much of its infrastructure, such as its extensive and well-integrated subway system, is only about 20 years old.
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There are no words to describe Beijing adequately and convey the true sense of its character. Most of modern Beijing began to appear about 20 years ago. Since that time it has had a building boom that is unprecedented by Canadian standards. The subway system transports approximately 12 million people each day. There are five ring roads and 5
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China World Trade Centre lobby
Beijing does have some striking architecture and buildings are equipped with the latest and state-of-the-art infrastructure. the sixth is presently under construction. Buildings are rising out of the ground with incredible speed. It is not unusual to see a multi-building project with as many as 40 construction cranes above the emerging buildings. In one instance during my tour, I stopped counting at 47 cranes. This massive new construction is not confined solely to Beijing however. It’s port city of Tainjing, Binhai Economic Development Zone, a mere couple of hours away on the 300kph bullet train, presently has under construction 167 buildings with an area of each building greater than one million square feet. Amazing! Back in Beijing, the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) is on track to become the world’s busiest by 2014 if not sooner. An emerging middle class has brought BCIA from 34th place to second place in just 10 years. To satisfy travel growth, one of every five airplanes produced by Boeing will be destined for China. This means China will be competing for nearly 72,000 pilots to satisfy the need for ever-increasing domestic travel. Beijing does have some striking architecture and buildings are equipped with the latest and state-of-the-art infrastructure. 5
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The most pressing challenge however is that the operating staff is not sufficiently trained to make the buildings work to their greatest efficiencies. I was impressed with some of China’s initiatives in the realm of green buildings. I spoke with Dr. Xu Tianji, PhD (U.K.) who is a vice chairman of BOMA China and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, and who was very interested in what BOMA has achieved through its BOMA BESt program; BOMA China is discussing a licensing agreement with BOMA Canada. China is in fact making remarkable progress in green programs. For example, the growth in clean energy resources grew by 28.5 per cent year-over-year and China experienced a commensurate reduction in power generation from fossil fuels. Most notably, solar power generation saw a 414.4 per cent increase in just one year. BOMA Canada and BOMA China are organizing a tour in March of this year. If any BOMA member is contemplating expanding its business into China, this tour would be an excellent opportunity to see it for yourself. The pace and extent of China’s growth has to be seen to be believed.
