More than 15 representatives from Mannheim, Chongqing, and the IUC team met today online to discuss the progress of cooperation. The IUC partnership, which started 2017 with bilateral missions leading to concrete pilot projects like the freight railway (2018) and the innovation conference (2019), is now evolving into a structured city-to-city partnership to be supported by permanent representation offices.

Shanli WANG, the Director for Regional Cooperation of Chongqing DRC, opened the discussion by thanking the IUC team for providing this opportunity to connect two cities under the COVID-19. And he introduced Chongqing proposal for further cooperation with Mannheim based on joint events, representative offices, regular exchange activities etc..

On behalf of the city of Mannheim, David Linse, the Director of Department of International Affairs, Integration and Protocol, Mannheim Municipal Government, thanked Chongqing for supporting Mannheim during containing of COVID-19 and expressed the strong commitment from the city to support value-driven exchange and cooperation with Chongqing.

Sieer Angar and Felix Kurz, the founders of Sino-German network and consulting firm MEI WEN TI, specified the concept of Representative Office on Chongqing in Mannheim under the 3-helix structure empowered by IUC project, which was strongly agreed and supported by both sides.

By sector-tailored following up sessions and agreed timelines, both sides will keep discussions focusing the cooperation on innovation, start-up’s exchange, vocational training, and re-boosting the cargo railway connection. These areas will also be discussed during the upcoming Smart City Summit to be held in Chongqing in September 2020. Experts from Mannheim will participate online in the conference.

For further questions, please contact office@iuc-asia.eu.

Agenda

IUC-Asia Online Meeting_Mannheim-Chongqing_15th July_Agenda_final

Impressions