Companies

Aedas hitches growth plan to China's high-speed rail

By Chen Qide (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-28 14:17

SHANGHAI - Aedas Ltd, a leading architectural design company, is targeting the Chinese market as part of an expansion strategy that will take advantage of the opportunities provided by the country's investment in high-speed rail, Ken Wai, managing director of Aedas China, said on Monday.

China is expected to build 16,000 kilometers of high-speed rail by 2020, providing huge job opportunities for architects, Wai said.

"Our strategy is to develop our business to include high-speed rail development," he told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

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Aedas has established an office in Shanghai to lay a foundation for the expansion.

"We will spotlight the Yangtze Delta region - a key section of China's high-speed rail program - where a large number of second-tier cities call for excellent architectural and urban planning designs," Wai said.

He said the company will apply its experience in designing the Hong Kong West Kowloon Terminus - a transportation hub that includes high-speed rail, subways, buses, taxis, hotels and retail facilities - to the mainland's urban planning.

Aedas is designing projects in Suzhou and Wuxi, Jiangsu province. Its design project in Suzhou centers on a 980,000-square-meter commercial hub, he said.

The company also intends to spread beyond the Yangtze Delta to include southwestern China as a key part of its Chinese operations.

"We plan to set up an office in Chongqing this year to promote our business in the region," Wai said.

According to industry experts, China is expected to have a 76 percent urbanization rate in the next 50 years, which will result in a demand for skilled architects.

Aedas currently has three regional headquarters, in London, New York and Hong Kong, and employs 2,300 people worldwide.

It achieved revenue of $220 million in 2010, 25 percent of which came from the Chinese market.

"We hope to achieve more from such a big market. We expect to double or triple our project volume in China in the next five years," he said.

Wai declined to disclose the total amount Aedas plans to invest in China, but said that at least 30 percent of the company's global annual profit will be used to employ master architects, update design software and train employees.

It plans to hire 100 architects annually from China and overseas in the next three years and increase the number of its employees in the country from 80 to 420, Wai said.

"We aim to hire architects with a different cultural background to add different styles to our designs for projects in China," he said.