On December 3rd 2019, the signing of the letter of intent for Tianjin City and Greater Manchester to become twin cities took place in the office of the Mayor of Greater Manchester. Member of the Standing Committee of Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the District Committee of Binhai New District Zhang Yuzhuo, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Consul General Zheng Xiyuan attended the signing ceremony together.
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During the ceremony, Mayor Burnham fondly recalled experiences and feelings from his personal visit to Tianjin in 2018. He expressed that the trip to China showed him how cities in China drive national economic and social development and thanked the Consulate General for actively facilitating the visit, which provided an opportunity for Greater Manchester and Tianjin City to connect and commence practical cooperation. Despite the many uncertainties involved in the process of Brexit in the UK, the determination of Greater Manchester for strengthening cooperation with China stands beyond all question. It looks forward to deepening exchange and cooperation with Tianjin City in new materials, health care and education as well as continuously exploring complementary advantages of the two economies and developing cooperation in many sectors.
Secretary Zhang praised Mayor Burnham for his open and practical attitude towards developing twin cities cooperation. He pointed out that Greater Manchester as the birthplace of the First Industrial Revolution embraces a city spirit of diligence and low profile and a city culture of innovation and enterprise, which are worthy of Tianjin to draw on. Both cities are industrial cities and share many similarities. It is hoped that both parties could harness their respective advantages in the 4th Industrial Revolution to initiate cooperation in areas including intelligent manufacturing and new material and jointly explore great cooperation prospects in areas including health care, education and science and technology.
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