The China-German Forum on Cities and Provinces Partnership, with the theme of “Green Development and Digitalization - New Dynamics of Collaboration” was held online on June 15.

Lin Songtian, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), Yan Dong, vice president of CPAFFC, Wu Ken, Chinese ambassador to Germany, Ling Wen, vice governor of Shandong province, Frank Rückert, chargé d'affaires of the Embassy of Germany in China, Melanie Huml, Bavaria's state minister for European and International Affairs, and Ms. Edeltraud Klabuhn, mayoress of Duisburg attended the forum via a video link and delivered speeches.

Shi Mingde, President of China-Germany Friendship Association and former Chinese Ambassadors to Germany, and Jürgen G. Eberbach, vice president of Association of German China Societies (ADCG) made concluding remarks at the closing ceremony.

Making remarks at the forum were representatives and officials of the governments, the parliaments and the foreign affairs departments from eight pairs of friendly provinces and three pairs of friendly cities in China and Germany including Guo Ningning, executive vice governor of Fujian province, Zhao Haishan, vice governor of Hubei province, Zhang Xin, vice governor of Guangdong province, Mo Gongming, vice chairman of the standing committee of Chongqing Municipal People's Congress, Ms. Heike Raab, State Secretary in the Chancellery of Rhineland-Palatinate, Mr. Bernd Buchholz, Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Labour, Technology and Tourism of Schleswig-Holstein, Mr. Stephan Keller, lord mayor of Düsseldorf, Ms. Corinna Nienstedt, head of state office of Hamburg, Mr. Michael Jäcke, mayor of Minden, and Bernhard Weber, chief representative of Baden-Wuerttemberg in China. 

The heads and representatives of 16 Chinese and German companies, including BMW, Volkswagen, SAP, Shandong Heavy Industry Group, iFLYTEK, H3C and Aliyun, made speeches online or by via video, talking about the fruits and new opportunities from mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Germany. About 300 people from both sides attended the event online.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations, said Mr. Lin Songtian. With the extraordinary vision and political courage of the Chinese and German leaders, two countries established diplomatic relations 50 years ago. Entering the new century, China-Germany relations have seen leapfrog development and established the "all-round strategic partnership". The history and reality of China's communication with Germany and Europe over the past half-century have both demonstrated that the two countries are their most important trade partner to each other. It is in the common interest of the people of China, Germany and Europe to share mutual benefits, seek win-win solution, maintain and develop sound and stable bilateral relations and firmly safeguard their respective strategic independence. It is also absolutely obvious that as long as the East and the West respect each other, seek common ground while putting aside differences, and pursue equality and mutual benefit, they can coexist in peace, cooperate for win-win results and achieve common development, Lin said.

Lin evaluated that friendship cities of China and Germany have built a strong bond of friendship between Chinese and German people. He expressed his willingness to work with the German side to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, to build more platforms for friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation between local governments, especially friendship cities and enterprises, to further deepen exchanges and cooperation in cultural, education, tourism, think tanks, media, youth and other humanities fields, to enhance mutual understanding, friendship and trust between the two peoples, and to promote mutually beneficial cooperation in green low-carbon innovation, transformation and development, new energy, new infrastructure, digital economy, platform economy and urban governance for the better benefit of the two countries and peoples.

The past 50 years of diplomatic relations between China and Germany have shown a success story of achieving common development and helping each other succeed, said Mr. Wu Ken. Despite the differences in history, culture, political systems and development levels between the two countries, there is no fundamental conflict of interest and the common interests far outweigh the differences. Local cooperation has always been an important part and a driving force of China-Germany relations. China's 14th Five-Year Plan is consistent with Germany's green energy transition and digital development, and there are new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, with great potential for local cooperation.

In recent years, Shandong’s economic and trade cooperation with Germany has continued to deepen, and Germany is Shandong's largest trade partner in the European Union, said Mr. Ling Wen. Mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides in a number of industrial fields such as high-end manufacturing, information technology, new energy, biomedicine and commerce has been deepening. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the friendship relation between Shandong province and Bavaria state, and the two regions have been cooperating closely and fruitfully. 

Shandong will continue to strengthen the cooperation in key industries with the German partners, continue to expand the scale of two-way investment, promote mutual understanding between the people of both sides and enhance people-to-people bonds, said Lin.

The China-German Forum on Cities and Provinces Partnership provides a good opportunity for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the China-Germany diplomatic relations, said Ms. Melanie Huml. The friendly relations of Bavaria with China have a long history and China has been an important trade partner for Bavaria, with 1,500 enterprises of the state keeping business communication with China. And many Chinese enterprises have also seen successes in the investment in Bavaria.

The state pays good attention to the success of China’s reform and opening up and has witnessed its rapid development. It also pays good attention to its friendship province relationships with Shandong and Guangdong provinces and expects to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation with Chinese partners in areas such as tackling climate change and new-energy technologies, she said.

The 50 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and China are 50 years of mutual learning and understanding between the two peoples, said Mr. Frank Rückert. Both countries are committed to fighting climate change and developing their economies and the German and Chinese local governments will play an important role in the achieving the goals of the new energy transition and digital development, he said.

Duisburg established sister city relation with Wuhan city in 1982, the first pair of friendship cities between Germany and China, said Ms. Edeltraud Klabuhn. This year Duisburg will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the friendly relation with Wuhan. As the largest center of steel industry in Europe and a major river port, Duisburg is now accelerating the transformation from an industrial area into a large ecological garden and seeks to strengthen cooperation with Wuhan in new energy and intelligent logistics, she said.

At the sub-forum of "Green Cooperation" and "Cooperation on Digitalization", the heads and representatives of friendly provinces and cities of China and Germany reviewed the history of their friendly relations, summarized the results of exchanges and make expectations on cooperation opportunities. They highly appreciated the efforts made by the CPAFFC in deepening China-Germany friendship and cooperation, and looked forward to enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation in green and low-carbon, digitalization and other fields so as to make more contributions to the cooperation in coping with climate change and public health crisis and promoting multilateral and global governance. 

Representatives from the German businesses expressed their confidence in the huge development opportunities of the Chinese market and their willingness to put down deep their roots in China.

The China-German Forum on Cities and Provinces Partnership is one of the series of activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations, which was attended by leaders and representatives of many local governments and enterprises of both countries, and covered widely on the media, demonstrating the common expectations of the people of both countries for friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Source: Official Website of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.