
It is abundantly clear that as Ethiopia has placed strong emphasis on elevating Addis Ababa to the unprecedented heights across a broad range of development initiatives, all parts of the city are moving in the right direction more than ever before.
In the present climate, Addis Ababa’s rapid growth and development is being witnessed by every Tom, Dick, and Harry. But learning lessons from Shenzhen that transformed itself in a very short period of time incorporating various things will be a great lesson. Nowadays, Shenzhen is winning the hearts and minds of the wider international community.
As a matter of fact, Addis Ababa can learn a broad range of lessons that can catapult the entire Ethiopia in terms of various development undertakings at the earliest possible juncture. Needless to say, if properly put in place, Shenzhen’s rapid development can become a lesson for the entire world.
In actual fact, as nothing shall be impossible to reach the pinnacle of development learning from others experience, Ethiopia should go to the ends of the earth to effectuate various lessons from Shenzhen’s development.
To begin with, Shenzhen was established in March 1979. In August the following year, the city was turned into the country’s first special economic zone. Over the past four decades, Shenzhen has transformed from a small backward border town into a modern and international metropolis, creating a miracle in the history of world development.
In august 2019, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Guidelines on Supporting Shenzhen in Building a Pilot Demonstration Area of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and the city was once again presented with a new major opportunity and a powerful mission. In accordance with the requirements of building “a model city of high-quality development,” “ a model city under the rule of law,” a modern city of urban civilization,” “ a beacon for people’s wellbeing” and “ a vanguard of sustainable development, ” Shenzhen is striving to continue to create new and greater miracles that will impress the world.
Shenzhen is committed to building a globally influential economic hub by continuously accelerating the construction of an advanced manufacturing center, a technology innovation center, a consumption center, a logistics center and a financial center with global influence.
By 2025, Shenzhen will be among the top global cities in terms of economic strength and quality of development, possessing world-class R&D investment intensity and industrial innovation capacity. The city will see a significant increase in cultural soft power with its level public services, and ecological environment quality reaching advanced levels and the city will become a modern, international and innovative city.
By 2035, Shenzhen’s high-quality development will be a national model and it will lead the world in comprehensive economic competitiveness. Shenzhen will become an innovative, entrepreneurial and creative city with global influence becoming an exemplary city for building a modern socialist country. By the middle of this century, Shenzhen will stand out as one of the world’s advanced cities and become a global benchmark city with outstanding competitiveness, innovation and influence.
Adjacent to Hong Kong, Shenzhen is a coastal city in southern Guangdong Province located on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary. To the east of the city are Daya Bay and Dapeng Bay, while the Pearl River Estuary and Lingding Bay lie to its west. Shenzhen River connects Hong Kong to the south and to the north of Shenzhen are the cities of Dongguan and Huizhou. Its longitude lies between 113.43 and 114.38 degrees east and its latitude lies between 22.24 and 22. 52 degrees north. Covering a total area of 1,997.47 square kilometers, its subtropical monsoon climate brings warmth and plenty of perception to the city.
As of the end of 2023, Shenzhen had 17.79 million permanent residents. As a young immigrant city, Shenzhen has been a magnet for innovative, entrepreneurial and creative talents from all over the world. According to the seventh national population census, the average age of Shenzhen residents was 32.5.
The mainstream language in Shenzhen is Mandarin Chinese, also known as Putonghua. Cantonese and English are also widely used. Some public service institutions may provide multilingual services. Citizens from all over the country also use local dialects for communication.
In the first half of 2024, Shenzhen’s GDP reached 1.73 trillion yuan with a year-on-year growth of 5.9%, and its import and export volume was 2.2 trillion yuan, up 31.7% from last year.
Shenzhen is committed to creating a whole-process innovation ecological chain of “basic research + technical research + achievement industrialization + technology finance + talent support” to form a market-oriented technological innovation system with enterprises as the main body and featuring deep integration of production, education and research. A large number of innovative companies have emerged such as Huawei, BYD, Tencent and DJl among others.
As an important engine of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), Shenzhen sizes the major opportunities provided by GBA construction to enhance its interconnectivity with Hong Kong in terms of infrastructure as well as in policies and standards, thereby building a good rapport between its citizens and those of Hong Kong.
Shenzhen takes the whole-process people’s democracy as they key to develop democracy and the rule of law. The city is committed to building a model city of the rule of law by promoting scientific legislation, strict implementation of laws, fair administration of justice, and encouraging people to abide by laws and is endeavoring to become a model city of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.
Rule of law is an important component of organized urban social governance. Shenzhen handles social issues by applying the thinking and methods of the rule of law, and uses technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence to enhance intelligent social governance.
A happy life is inseparable from the development and nourishment of modern urban civilization. Shenzhen comprehensively promotes the construction of an urban spiritual civilization and the public cultural survive system and nurtures the city’s scientific, humanistic and artistic spirit.
The cultural industry is the spiritual carrier that reflects a city’s civilization progress. Shenzhen has continued to improve the modern cultural industry and market systems focusing on the cultural industry and tourism and establishing a number of Chinese cultural brands with international influence.
Shenzhen places people’s health as a strategic priority and continues to increase in health with the main objectives of “making up shortcomings, strengthening grassroots, building modern facilities and promoting health”
To ensure citizens live and work in happiness, Shenzhen has implemented a large-scale housing construction plan continuing to strengthen housing security as well as service support in education, transportation and health care.
The city’s forest area is 788.16 square kilometers and the greening coverage of the built-up area reaches 43.09 %. A total of 1,290 parks of various types and 3,406 greenways have been built.
Shenzhen is the first city in the world to have all buses and taxis powered by electricity and it is also the city with the most complete new energy vehicle industry Chain in the world.
Shenzhen’s new development model takes ecological conservation as a priority and highlights the coordinated development of the land and the sea, strengthened joint protection and management of local ecology and increased capacity in disaster prevention. The city promotes the development of green industries and aims to create a new pattern of green development to meet the goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions and achieving carbon neutrality.
Shenzhen has taken the lead in piloting the carbon market and established the most complete carbon regulations and system in China accelerating the climate finance reform.
As an “international garden city”, Shenzhen is accelerating the construction of an innovative demonstration zone under the national sustainable development agenda implementing the strictest ecological environmental protection system to create a safe and efficient space for development, a comfortable and livable living space and an ecological space of lucid waters and blue sky.
Shenzhen initiated the “Mountain-sea Vistas” plan to build a citywide multi-level outdoor trial system that connects mountains, forests and coastlines. Currently, Shenzhen has built a greenway network of about 3,406 kilometers and the density of greenways ranks first in Guangdong.
ADDISALEM MULAT
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 3 JUNE 2025