Cities Strengthen Economic LinksEconomic links are set to be strengthened between North China's Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, and East China's Shanghai, one of the most important engines for the country's economic take-off.Shijiazhuang's top officials are on a three-day business tour in Shanghai, which started on Tuesday. "I believe co-operations with the largest city in China would greatly stir up our economic growth for both sides,'' said Chen Laili, Party secretary of Shijiazhuang. The Party secretary is heading a 200-member delegation, including the city's mayor and other delegates from its government departments, entrepreneurs and technology talents seeking opportunities to work with their Shanghai counterparts. A high-profile commodities fair featuring 20,000 high-quality products from Hebei Province will also be scheduled in hopes of finding Shanghai vendors during the three-day fair. "We hope the commodity show will help both sides to find ways for complementary economic growth and the officials talks between the two cities will find views on how to prop up the two-way economic growth,'' said Chen. Expectations are flying high in a number of areas, such as capital market, technology fronts and State-owned enterprises' structural shuffle facing the upcoming World Trade Organization accession. Termed as one of the major gateways to the mid- and western hinterland area in China, Chen said the city is eager to lure investment, technology and high-profile talents from the economically advanced coastal areas. "Shanghai itself would also get better returns for its business expansion in our territory,'' said Chen. The city plans to sign-off on 34 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion) worth of co-operation contracts involving 44 projects in Shanghai's trade, technology and finance industries during the fair. |
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