Yellow Sea Region Infrastructure Spending and Land-Use/Pricing News

This list includes news about land use, related infrastructure investments, coastal conservation, real-estate prices, and associated values in the countries bordering the Yellow Sea, as well as relevant articles from elsewhere. This list is neither complete nor up to date. However, the most-recent version will be posted indefinitely at this web address. Feel free to pass along relevant articles to james.hadley@factplusfancy.com.

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Current Year

China Daily, 2012.03.27 07:33, "Arable land idle as farmers work in cities" by Cheng Yingqi and Jin Zhu, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-03/27/content_14918222.htm
[Selected quote] With farmers moving to cities amid fast urbanization, China has 7.6 million hectares of idle land that could be used as farmland and land for construction, a study has found. "One-fourth to one-third of land in traditional agricultural regions is not in use, being occupied by empty houses and abandoned farmland," said Liu Yansui, author of the report and a researcher with the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The number of rural residents could fall to 280 million by 2020, from 300 million now, according to the report issued on Monday.

Stony Brook University -- Press Release, 2012.03.19, "SUNY Korea Welcomes Inaugural Class of Graduate Students: Funded by South Korea, classes are in session for students pursuing SUNY Stony Brook Graduate Degrees in Technology & Society and Engineering", http://commcgi.cc.stonybrook.edu/am2/publish/General_University_News_2/SUNY_KOREA_WELCOMES_INAUGURAL_CLASS_OF_GRADUATE_STUDENTS_printer.shtml
[Selected quote] [...] located at the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) [and] funded by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the IFEZ, and the Metropolitan City of Incheon, the SUNY Korea partnership makes SUNY the first foreign university to have a permanent physical presence within the global university in the IFEZ. [...] The SUNY Korea partnership has been awarded funding under a Ministry of Knowledge Economy grant entitled "Fostering Premium IT Professionals." The total grant is for approximately $50 million for 10 years, and SUNY Korea will work with the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), a top-notch engineering university in Hyoja, for a 20 percent allocation of the grant.

Korea Herald, The, 2012.03.14 19:33, "Incheon to bid for U.N. Green Climate Fund [Secretariat headquarters location]" by Choi He-suk, http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120314001015

Times Beacon Record, 2012.03.14 16:38, "SUNY Korea opens its doors: Sister campus of Stony Brook University offers graduate degrees" by Brittany Wait, http://www.northshoreoflongisland.com/Articles-News-i-2012-03-15-91667.112114-sub18235.112114-SUNY-Korea-opens-its-doors.html

China Daily, 2012.03.08 08:13, "Oil giants looking to add capacity, stockpile zone to port of Tianjin" by Zhou Yan, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-03/08/content_14783619.htm
[Selected quote] [Yu Rumin, chairman of Tianjin Port] said the port is too small to accommodate additional LNG terminals. He said the port nonetheless plans to build one or two such terminals after 2015, when the southern part of the port will be expanded eastward through land reclamation.

Industry and Technology Times, 2012.03.06, "A Look into the Smart City [Korean Ubiquitous City (U-City) plans at Sejong city, Incheon, Seoul Yongsan International Business Zone, Busan, Ansan, Naju, Namyangju, Yeosu, and Pyeongchang (host of the 2018 Olympics Winter Games)]" by Kim Sung-mi, http://www.koreaittimes.com/story/20111/look-smart-city

George Mason University News Desk, 2012.03.05 10:50, "Faculty Senate Endorses Songdo Proposal, with Reservations" by Robin Herron, http://newsdesk.gmu.edu/2012/03/faculty-senate-endorses-songdo-proposal-with-reservations/
[Selected quote] At its meeting on February 29, the Faculty Senate voted to endorse the proposed Songdo, Korea, initiative, subject to two conditions. The issue was studied by the Faculty Senate's Academic Initiatives Committee, which found that the proposal for a Mason campus in Korea "does have merit." The conditions are: (1) That deans of the colleges or schools that offer degrees in Songdo certify that the programs will meet all requirements for graduation, and that the sequence of courses will satisfy prerequisite requirements for the major degree program. (2) That the senior vice president certify that the program in Songdo will be self-supporting and financially viable beyond the initial five-year subsidy period.

China Daily, 2012.03.03 08:00, "Keep a red line for arable land" by Yang Liangmin, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-03/03/content_14745950.htm
[Selected quote] Some local people have even reclaimed parts of Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province and Dongting Lake in Hunan province during their dry seasons for planting in order to gain subsidies from the government. And a campaign has been launched in parts of Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan and other provinces in the Yangtze River valley to convert lakes into farmland. Such shortsighted behavior has played a role in helping keep the country's cultivated area from drastically decreasing and contributed to its continuous agricultural harvests, but such actions only offer temporary benefits and are likely to have catastrophic environmental and ecological consequences in the future.

Information Age, 2012.02.23, "IBM, Cisco and the business of smart cities" by Pete Swabey, http://www.information-age.com/channels/comms-and-networking/company-analysis/2087993/ibm-cisco-and-the-business-of-smart-cities.thtml
[Selected quote] Back in 2005, through his philanthropic organisation the Clinton Foundation, the former US president [Bill Clinton] challenged network equipment maker Cisco to use its technical know-how to make cities more sustainable. As a result, Cisco dedicated $25 million over five years to research the topic, spawning what it called the Connected Urban Development programme. This involved working with the cities of San Francisco, Amsterdam and Seoul on pilot projects to prove the technology's potential. In 2010, when Cisco's pledge to the Clinton Foundation expired, it launched its Smart and Connected Communities division in order to commercialise the products and services that it had developed during the programme. [...] Cisco's smart city projects so far range from brownfield projects -- such as a partnership with the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York to improve rail and station monitoring -- to greenfield sites such as Songdo, an entirely new, sustainable city being built on reclaimed marshland in South Korea. [...] "We always take an ecosystem approach," explains Cisco's [Gordon] Feller. "In some cases, there might be just a few partners. In the case of Songdo, our partners include the local economic development agency, the national government, the local steel giant and an urban developer."

Dredging Today, 2012.02.22, "Guangzhou Dredging Lands YETDZ Reclamation Project (China)", http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2012/02/22/guangzhou-dredging-lands-yetdz-reclamation-project-china/
[Selected quote] CCCC Guangzhou Dredging Co., Ltd. won [...] the auxiliary port and steel industry park in Yingkou Economic and Technical Development Zone (YETDZ) [Liaoning, China], with a contract value of 1.14 billion yuan, a construction period of 569 days [and] a reclamation area of 2.6 million square meters, the project involves revetment, cofferdam, temporary breakwater, land forming and Angang Steel's water channel reconstruction works.

Dredging Today, 2012.02.16, "China: Third Harbor Engineering Nabs Dalian Linkong Land Reclamation Deal", http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2012/02/16/china-third-harbor-engineering-nabs-dalian-linkong-land-reclamation-deal/
[Selected quote] [In the] Jinzhou Bay Sea Area [...] western side, the revetment is 6433m long, with reclamation area of 6.22 square kilometers, reclamation volume of 87 million cubic meters, dredging volume of 25 million cubic meters. The construction period will last for 24 months, with contractual value totaling RMB 3.815 billion.

Beijing Review, 2012.02.13, "Not So Paradise Islands: Unregulated land reclamation threatens China's marine environment" by Li Li, http://www.bjreview.com.cn/nation/txt/2012-02/13/content_425165.htm
[Selected quote] Longkou, a coastal city located in the northwest of the Shandong Peninsula and on the southern bank of Bohai Bay, is embarking on an ambitious expansion plan. A chain of seven artificial islands with a total area of more than 35.2 square km, almost two thirds the size of New York's Manhattan Island, are being created by filling the ocean with tons of earth and stones quarried from a nearby hill. The sea in the area that is currently being reclaimed averages 7 meters in depth. The entire operation will require a 440-million-cubic-meter landfill and the total estimated cost of the project stands at around 20 billion yuan ($3.17 billion). [...] Building artificial islands in order to enable cities to expand also avoids destroying farmland, which is strictly protected by the Central Government. To ensure food security, China has set a "red line" to guarantee that its arable land never falls below 120 million hectares, making it difficult for local governments to expand municipal boundaries to include the surrounding countryside. It also allows local governments to skirt the issues that normally accompany land expropriations in urban areas, such as compensating home-owners and demolishing existing buildings. [...] "Extravagant profits are driving this craze for reclamation," said [Liu Hongbin, Professor, China Ocean University, Qingdao, Shandong], noting that the cost of filling varies from 450,000 yuan ($71,349) to 4.5 million yuan ($713,490) per hectare, while earnings can be as high as 100 times the cost. [...] "Apart from subsidence, earthquakes and tsunamis also pose serious threats to buildings on reclaimed land," said Yang Guanxiong, a former geographical researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

China Daily, 2012.01.13 07:33, "Fishermen ride wave of discontent: Depleted stocks mean catch is harder to come by, Cui Jia and Liu Ce report from Shandong and Liaoning provinces", http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/china/2012-01/13/content_14435394.htm
[Selected quote] Bohai Sea, where Shidao port sits, used to have 70 types of marine products with commercial value, according to a study released in July by Tianjin Bohai Sea Marine Products Institute. Pollution and overfishing have cut that number to 10. "China's overfished and depleted waters are forcing Chinese fisherman farther and farther out into sea, where they are running into more and more trouble with Korean coast guards." [said Li Yongkai, deputy director of oceanic administration of Rongcheng city].

Korea Times, The, 2012.01.08 17:13, "Still time for Songdo City to protect biodiversity" opinion by Tim Edelsten, http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2012/01/137_102458.html
[Selected quote] Tidal flats play an important role in sustaining healthy environments and marine ecosystems. A 2006 study by the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute found that the average economic value of mudflat (mostly due to its fisheries) was over [US]$32,000 per hectare annually. Assessing Incheon's tidal flat in 2007, the Korea Environment Institute found that just one hectare provided $27,972 of benefits in water purification, and sequesters 10 tons of carbon per annum. The economic and ecological value of tidal flats was also well-known in 2000, when Incheon publicly committed itself to its "Charter for Tidal Flat Preservation." Despite this, Incheon recorded the largest loss of tidal flats of all South Korean localities between 2003 and 2008 -- an area of 33 square kilometers.

Korea Herald, The, 2012.01.04 19:30, "Lotte to set up shopping complex in Incheon zone" by Shin Hyon-hee, http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120104000631

the network: Cisco's Technology News Site, 2011.01.04, "Cities of the Future: Songdo, South Korea -- Episode 1" by Wendy Tanaka, http://newsroom.cisco.com/feature-content?type=webcontent&articleId=630153
[Selected quote] South Korea is one of the world's most densely populated countries. When the Songdo project began in 2001, there was no available land to build it. Fifteen hundred acres had to be reclaimed from the sea.