SHENZHEN will cooperate with the Finland capital of Helsinki in the science, trade, culture, finance, tourism and education sectors, according to a cooperation memorandum on friendly city exchanges signed by visiting Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin and his counterpart in Helsinki on Monday.
As the two cities are both port cities and City of Design members of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network, the two sides will be specially dedicated to cooperation in port logistics, creative design, research and application of new energy, and low-carbon urban construction. Both cities are increasing their focus on sustainable development and construction of intelligent cities.
"The friendly city relationship marks a new stage of cooperation between the two sides. We expect to build an exchange platform for enterprises in the two cities through wider and deeper cooperation in designated sectors," Xu said at a meeting with Jussi Pajunen, mayor of Helsinki.
A business promotion meeting Monday attracted more than 200 representatives of local enterprises, industries and government departments. Four deals in the creative design sector were signed at the meeting.
The Shenzhen Industrial Design Association will cooperate with designers in Finland in design, research, training and information sharing under inter-city exchanges through UNESCO programs.
The Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, signed a training program with designers from Finland Aalto University. Shenzhen Rococo Design Group will build an R&D center for Chinese-style home design in cooperation with a Finland company. Shenzhen-based 3NOD Group signed a cooperation with Finland Ed Design Co. for its global strategy project involving digital brands.
"We hope Helsinki enterprises will set up R&D centers in Shenzhen, and the two sides will promote the construction of a design park in Shenzhen to attract Finland designers," Xu said.
Xu also said the two sides could create a win-win situation through cooperation in newly emerging industries, especially in telecommunications, bio-technology and environmental protection technology.
(Source:Shenzhen Daily)