Interview: Technology priority in exploring sister-city innovation: Guangzhou Vice Mayor

Technological cooperation is the priority for cooperation between three major cities of China, New Zealand and the United States, Vice Mayor of south China's Guangzhou Wang Dong told Xinhua Monday.

The mayoral delegates of Guangzhou, New Zealand's biggest city Auckland and Los Angeles, in the United States, reached a consensus Monday that technology would be a focus for future collaboration, Wang said in an exclusive interview at the Tripartite Economic Summit of leaders from the cities.

"Currently there is a strategy in China of innovation-driven development. This strategy was proposed by President Xi Jinping. It is a very important strategy and it is an open strategy, meaning we welcome collaboration all over the world. We welcome enterprises, talents and technology to China to conduct cooperation," Wang said.

"The second area will be the more conventional business and trade domain. The third sector will be tourism."

The three cities - and the three countries - were all in different stages of development, so they face different problems, he said.

"But among the problems we all face, environmental protection could be one of the common challenges that we can tackle together," said Wang.

"A green and sustainable model of development is one of the five principles of development in China. Because Guangzhou has such a huge population and such a large industrial development need, I think this will be the first challenge where we can rely on the help of our international friends to tackle together," he said.

The second issue would be transportation, which was under huge pressure, particularly in Guangzhou and Los Angeles.

"The third challenge that we all face would be the question of development in a general sense because each city has different needs of development and the ultimate goal of this Tripartite (relationship) is the answer of developing according to each city's needs," he said.

"But our goal is the same in the sense that we want to development our economies so as to provide a foundation for the betterment of our people's livelihoods."

The Tripartite Alliance between the three cities was an exploration of the traditionally existing sister-city cooperation.

"The Tripartite Alliance is a very innovative approach for us to enhance and emphasize our three sister-city cooperation in the economic field," said Wang.

"I have very great confidence in and expectations of this model of cooperation and I'm looking forward to having more breakthroughs in other areas of cooperation." Endit