Officials announce the launch of the Chongqing European Center in Liangjiang. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn] |
The 2020 Euro-China Green and Smart City Summit was held in the Liangjiang New Area in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality on Sept 14.
The summit discussed city governance during the post novel coronavirus-epidemic period and presented over 150 cases about anti-epidemic measures from 30 cities in China and 13 countries in Europe -- covering the areas of management mechanisms, the effect of different applications, technology innovations and platform innovations.
As the municipality achieves greater success in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, Chongqing hopes to cooperate with European cities to promote its levels of city governance.
Rudolf Niessler, director of European Union's regional and urban policy department, attended the summit online and said that the EU has put together plans with many European cities and invested several billion euros (billion dollars) since the outbreak of COVID-19.
He said that with such efforts, the EU could provide practical anti-epidemic experience and allow companies to stay in business. Niessler added that the epidemic could even become an opportunity to boost the further development of the green and smart city internationally.
The new Chongqing European Center was also unveiled at the summit. Established in Liangjiang, the center will provide information and liaison services for European companies and organizations investing in Chongqing -- through links with local industry, chambers of commerce and business alliances.
Liangjiang has become the permanent venue of the Euro-China Green and Smart City Summit, which aims to enhance communications between Chinese and European cities and act as a springboard for the launch of green and digital economy projects.
To date, the summit has been held in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Ningbo, Nanning and Chongqing, with over 350 cities from 40 countries participating.
John Edwards, the UK trade commissioner for China, praised Chongqing over its rise as a burgeoning center in intelligent manufacturing.