Shanghai seeks to forge new links with Cork

The Mayor of Shanghai said his city is open to forging new cultural, technological, and research links across Ireland following the success of his city’s twinning link with Cork.

Mr Yang Xiong, who oversees a economic powerhouse of some 25m people and who normally only meets heads of state, was speaking yesterday as he hosted Cork’s Lord Mayor Chris O’Leary at Shanghai City Hall.

He said reforms in the China Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) — a project launched in 2013 to test the waters for financial reforms as part of new government policies which are leading towards the internationalisation of the yuan currency — offer enormous opportunities for Ireland.

Mr O’Leary, who visited the admin offices of the FTZ earlier yesterday, was told it has already created more than 30,000 companies and has resulted in outbound investment of roughly $18bn (€16.1bn) of Chinese money.

Mr O’Leary and the members of the delegation he is leading to the Chinese city to mark the 10th anniversary of their twinning link spent more than an hour at dinner with the mayor and some of Shanghai’s most senior political and economic figures.

Meeting mayor of #Shanghai, Mr Yang Xiong. He normally only meets heads of state #corkshanghai10 pic.twitter.com/YHbLeL1Chk

— Eoin English (@EoinBearla) October 22, 2015

Eoghan Duffy, the vice consul general of Ireland, who attended the meeting, said the unprecedented access granted to the Cork delegation is a real sign of how seriously Shanghai treats its twinning relationship with Cork.

Mr Xiong said Cork and Shanghai have a lot of common areas to draw upon and that the links between Chinese and Cork schools forged over the last decade have helped further mutual understanding.

And he said that as the FTZ project begins to focus on research and innovation, Shanghai hopes to forge new co-operations and partnerships with Cork technology and research firms as it reaches out to the world.

“I am delighted to host you here today to celebrate our twinning relationship,” he said.

“I hope to further enhance our exchanges and co-operation between our people.

“We are more than ready to carry out more exchanges with Cork and other regions of Ireland.”

Mr O’Leary then extended an invitation to Mr Xiong to visit Cork.

#Cork Lord Mayor .@chrisjoleary signs the visitors book at #Shanghai City Hall #corkshanghai10 pic.twitter.com/XMPTkQxRvm

— Eoin English (@EoinBearla) October 22, 2015

Hugh Smiddy, of the Tyndall National Institute, which is at the cutting edge of nanotechnology and ICT research and who lived in Asia for 14 years, said he has rarely seen such openness and willingness to engage as he is seeing from Shanghai.

He said that while the Tyndall already has links with partners in China, the strength of the twinning relationship will help it build on those, particularly in Shanghai around the FTZ areas — home to dozens of industrial parks and research institutes.

“It will help us get the excellent research we are doing in Ireland out to the world. What we don’t have in Ireland is scale and China has scale,” he said.

“Critically, we can act as partners. We’re not saying this is what we have, we need to go here. We’re saying this is what we have, tell us where you want to go.”

Confidential talks with Chinese companies working in the areas of nanotechnology and information communications technology are already underway.

Shanghai, which has 25m people, is eyeing further cultural and research links with Ireland

Conor Healy, the Cork Chamber chief executive, said the twinning has helped build trust and understanding between the two cities over the last decade.

“The key now is how do we really maximise that in our key sectors — technology, life sciences, agri food, and tourism .”

He said it was the job of the chamber to better communicate to Ireland the sheer scale of opportunities in China, and the opportunities as China seeks to do more business abroad.

“The key is to position Cork as a strategic city in a European context. There is a strong awareness of Cork in Shanghai. The challenge now is not to let that slip,” he said.

The twinning celebrations continue with the Asia Pacific Ireland Business Forum today followed this evening by a gala performance by Pulses of Tradition at the Shanghai International Arts Festival.