The IUC Team visited the new pilot city of Panjin. The visit was coordinated by Panjin’s Development and Reform Commission (DRC) and involved the following field visits:
- Liaodong Bay New District and 2 joint venture petrochemical projects collaborated with European companies.
- Panjin Vocational and Technical College (PJVTC). PJVTC has been collaborating with AHK and GIZ on dual-system education and training projects for petrochemical industry since 2016, and would like to cooperate universities/institutions from Germany for undergraduate education projects.
- Red Beach National Scenic Corridor, the most famous tourism spot in Panjin and Liaoning Province, and Panjin Wetland Nature Reserve Zone, the largest wetland in China.
- Panjin Smart City Operation Management Center and had a discussion with Director Shao from the center on smart city collaboration with EU pilot cities.
After this meeting, a concluding meeting was held with key stakeholders from Panjin DRC. Mr. Liu Zhicheng (Director of Panjin DRC, who also participated the mission to Europe in November 2019) suggested to start the cooperation with EU IUC cities from 3 aspects: 1) cooperation on Liaodong Bay Industry Park; 2)cooperation on integration development of urban and rural area; 3)cooperation on ecological protection for wetlands. The meeting was also attended by Mr. LI Zhe and Ms. SONG Yue, head of the division for regional development and energy respectively.
Next actions
- Development of a clear roadmap for Panjin with clear targets
- To seek the opportunity and support for EU pilot cities to participate at the Panjin International Rural Development Expo in 2020 (details to be further discussed due to COVID19 crisis);
- Request the EU pilot cities to collaborate with Panjin on smart city management;
- Support Panjin cooperation with EU pilot cities on tourism, e.g. tourism industry planning and development, technology and experts’ exchange, talents training, etc.
- Arrange bilateral online discussions on topics mentioned above if EU pilot cities present interests to cooperate.
Impressions
