Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development Co. (SSTEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday with Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd (Mitsui Fudosan), Japan’s largest real estate developer, to invest 3 billion yuan in order to build a 40-hectare “integrated eco-neighborhood,” in Tianjin Eco-City. It will consist mostly of public housing.

The construction of the 30 square kilometer Eco-city in Binhai New Area, about 150 kilometers from Beijing and 45 kilometers from downtown Tianjin is supposed to emphasize so-called ‘green’ factors such as air and water quality, natural ecology, biodiversity, energy conservation, and waste management.

Mitsui Fudosan is the third international partner SSTEC has teamed up with this month. On July 1, the company entered into a joint venture Shimao Property Holdings, China's leading foreign-funded property developer to build about 100-hectares of residential and commercial land, and an 80-hectare are of public park space.

The next day, SSTEC joined hands with Farglory Land Development Group Shanghai, Taiwan’s largest property developer to create a “live, work and play” community that will serve as the hub of leisure activities for the Eco-City.

These three projects are expected to create more than 24,000 homes at a total cost of more than RMB23 billion. Eventually the Eco-City will house about 350,000 residents.

By Guo Changdong