WELLINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government Wednesday announced the creation of a unit that will draw on international examples of urban redevelopment in drawing up a blueprint for rebuilding the central business district (CBD) of the earthquake-battered city of Christchurch.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said the establishment of a new "business unit" inside the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority marked a shift in focus from demolition to building in the central city.

The new Christchurch Central Development Unit would draw up a blueprint over the next 100 days for the implementation of a draft Central City Plan, which the city council had submitted to the government for approval in December last year.

"This approach reflects and draws on international best practice for the recovery of major centers following disasters, or where communities have decided to embark on a significant urban renewal process," said Brownlee in a statement.

More than 15 international examples of redevelopment structures including the redevelopment of Beirut's CBD, Lower Manhattan, London's Docklands, and Brisbane's Southbank Development Corporation had been reviewed to examine powers, processes and implementation of city recovery, he said.

"This blueprint will be vital to achieving a coherent roll-out of a number of anchor projects such as public buildings and strategic city blocks, and will provide important guidance to the market," said Brownlee.

"An example of an important anchor project is the city's new convention centre. Delivering certainty about that project will begin the process of reviving the city's hospitality and tourism sector.

"Hotel developments are unlikely to proceed until the location of the convention centre is resolved.

"Reviving the central city's hospitality and tourism sector will attract other businesses in and encourage service sector, retail and hospitality development.

"The blueprint will deliver the sort of market intelligence the commercial property and business sectors need to invest with confidence. This is all about getting momentum in the rebuild," Brownlee said.

In a published speech at the launch of the new unit Wednesday, Brownlee said about 30 percent, or 600, of the commercial buildings in central Christchurch had to be demolished out of a total of 1,936 buildings.

The buildings that remained were scattered across a large area in the four avenues with almost 3,000 different land-owners.

"We know that the full recovery of Christchurch will take many years, but international experience suggests we have a three year window of opportunity to get the rebuild and recovery framework underway, and to establish momentum and confidence," said Brownlee in the speech.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said the Central Development Unit was the best way of handling the extremely important task of managing the rebuild of the central city.

While much of the new unit's focus would be on the private sector, the council would continue to get on with the job of managing the public domain, said Parker in a statement.

"One of the challenges is to attract significant overseas investment to assist with the rebuild of our city. I look forward to being part of the team involved in this investment promotion and attraction," he said.

However, opposition political parties criticized the new unit as an extra layer of "bureaucracy" and warned it risked ignoring the wishes of Christchurch residents.

Earthquake recovery spokesperson for the main opposition Labour Party, Lianne Dalziel, said the unit was a "patch-up job" for a failed government response to the earthquakes.

"The people of Christchurch needed to hear about a vision for the central city that reflected the ideas that the community expressed through the Share an Idea campaign. They needed timelines and milestones, not more stalling tactics," said Dalziel in a statement.

"Without a layer of governance between the minister and the recovery authority we have decisions being made by Cabinet, implemented by bureaucrats and undermining the last remaining democratic institution in Christchurch our city council."

The opposition Green Party said the unit risked overshadowing the work of the Council and the city's residents.

"Over 100,000 residents contributed to the development of the council's draft Central City Plan and it's essential that their vision for the future of the central city is not lost," said Green Party Christchurch earthquake spokesperson Eugenie Sage.

"What is cheapest and quickest for commercial property owners will not necessarily create an attractive, enduring and sustainable city that is a pleasant place to work, live and play in," said Sage in a statement.

She cited transport as an important part of good urban design that the government had excluded from consideration, putting the implementation of the rest of the vision at risk.

Christchurch and the surrounding Canterbury region have been battered by earthquakes since September 2010, including a 6.3- magnitude quake that killed 185 people in February last year.

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