Pittsburgh mayor shares lessons with Shanghai
By Zhang Fengming |
October 11, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LUKE Ravenstahl, mayor of Pittsburgh, was in Shanghai to attend the International Business Leaders' Advisory Council during which he delivered a keynote speech as he shared the US city's experience on economic restructuring and diversification.
At 30 years old, the youngest mayor of any major US city also talked with Shanghai Daily on how Pittsburgh, located in east US, successfully transformed from a smoky and polluted steel city into a modern dynamic metropolis.
The city was picked up by US President Barack Obama to host the G20 Summit last year thanks to its "mix of a strong steel industry and biotech and clean energy."
Ravenstahl is in his second term as mayor after being elected to his first term in 2006.
Q: What's the key role of innovative industries to a city?
A: The important part of high-tech and life science is that it creates avenues for entrepreneurship so that a lot of young university students have opportunities to set up businesses.
Q: What similarities do Shanghai and Pittsburgh share, and in what areas can the two cooperate?
A: As we embark on our next phase of using our waterways to improve our tourism and the quality of life for our residents, we are looking closely at your historic Bund waterfront as one of the best examples of how to do this.
Q: What's the key to handle job losses while the economy is restructuring?
A: The key is to diversify. The good news about Pittsburgh is that despite the global recession, we have been able to do better than most (cities) because we are strong in health care and education and they still grow jobs.
Q: What's the biggest industry in Pittsburgh now? What's your unemployment rate?
A: The biggest industry in terms of GDP output is financial services. The biggest in terms of number of employees is health care. So health care provides most jobs. Our unemployment rate has been hovering around 2 percentage points below the national average in the past year.
Q: How did Pittsburgh make the sea change in a single generation?
A: We built upon our historic strengths, invested in people through universities to create entire new industries and worked to enhance the quality of life for all citizens.
At 30 years old, the youngest mayor of any major US city also talked with Shanghai Daily on how Pittsburgh, located in east US, successfully transformed from a smoky and polluted steel city into a modern dynamic metropolis.
The city was picked up by US President Barack Obama to host the G20 Summit last year thanks to its "mix of a strong steel industry and biotech and clean energy."
Ravenstahl is in his second term as mayor after being elected to his first term in 2006.
Q: What's the key role of innovative industries to a city?
A: The important part of high-tech and life science is that it creates avenues for entrepreneurship so that a lot of young university students have opportunities to set up businesses.
Q: What similarities do Shanghai and Pittsburgh share, and in what areas can the two cooperate?
A: As we embark on our next phase of using our waterways to improve our tourism and the quality of life for our residents, we are looking closely at your historic Bund waterfront as one of the best examples of how to do this.
Q: What's the key to handle job losses while the economy is restructuring?
A: The key is to diversify. The good news about Pittsburgh is that despite the global recession, we have been able to do better than most (cities) because we are strong in health care and education and they still grow jobs.
Q: What's the biggest industry in Pittsburgh now? What's your unemployment rate?
A: The biggest industry in terms of GDP output is financial services. The biggest in terms of number of employees is health care. So health care provides most jobs. Our unemployment rate has been hovering around 2 percentage points below the national average in the past year.
Q: How did Pittsburgh make the sea change in a single generation?
A: We built upon our historic strengths, invested in people through universities to create entire new industries and worked to enhance the quality of life for all citizens.
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