Resource-Exhausted Mining City in PRC to Become Model for Redevelopment
MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The resource-exhausted mining city of Baiyin in the People's Republic China (PRC) is being transformed into an industrial center, offering a model of redevelopment to other towns facing dwindling mining resources. The $161.53 million Gansu Baiyin Urban Development Project includes an $80 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), with the balance funded by PRC government participants including the Baiyin Municipal Government. The project will facilitate the economic transformation of Baiyin by strengthening urban services and infrastructure. "Baiyin stands for a new model of economic transformation from a resource-exhausted mining city into a new industrial center through technology upgrading and extension, and diversification of the existing production chains," said Fei Yue, Social Sector Specialist of ADB's East Asia Department. PRC has identified 118 cities that have developed around the mining of natural resources. Most of these cities have encountered difficulty in the urbanization process due to their remoteness, imbalanced economic structures, limited financial capacity, poor urban infrastructure and limited development prospects. Of the cities, 18 are classified as resource-exhausted cities, posing a special challenge to urbanization in the PRC. In these cities, using the Baiyin project as a model for redevelopment, miners could be retrained to work in other fields including agriculture, tourism or technology. ADB involvement in the Baiyin project will provide not only financial support, but also international knowledge and policy advice for the municipal government to help ensure that the economic transformation will be accomplished in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. The project will develop industrial land by providing basic public infrastructure including roads, water supply pipelines, drainage pipelines and sewers, heating supply pipelines, optical-fabric cable and electricity distribution lines, lighting and public green areas. It will also construct and rehabilitate roads and bridges, expand centralized district heating services, help the municipal government design and introduce an effective environmental management system, and develop an integrated urban transport planning and management system. Baiyin was established in the 1950s under the planned economy to support copper mining production. However, the copper mines had been exhausted and were closed in the 1980s, while mining of associated mineral resources such as lead and zinc is also on the decline. About ADB | 
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