Cities enhance cooperation at cross-Strait forum
Shanghai and Taipei signed three memorandums of understanding to enhance cooperation and exchanges at the Taipei-Shanghai Forum in Taipei on Thursday.
One aims to promote cooperation in cultivating young athletes, while another will enhance exchanges and cooperation between Shanghai’s Jiading District and Taipei’s Datong District. The third seeks closer ties in the radio, television and film industry.
Zhou Bo, executive vice-mayor of Shanghai who was leading a delegation to the forum, and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je witnessed the signings which brought the total number of such documents signed at the annual event between the two cities to 33.
In his keynote speech, Zhou said the forum, which has been held in rotation since 2010, had carried out a series of practical and efficient exchanges which had benefited people in both cities.
He said such exchanges had been a model of cross-Strait government communication and people-to-people cooperation.
“Shanghai is committed to improving its own capacity and core competitiveness to develop itself into a modern communist metropolis with global influence. It provides huge potential for deepening cooperation between Shanghai and Taipei,” he said. “People across the Taiwan Strait are of a family and we should have more exchanges and cooperation to achieve win-win development. We will continue to uphold the 1992 Consensus and work together with Taipei to maintain the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.”
Ko said the forum was a force to push forward cross-Strait relations after nine years of effort and had improved mutual understanding and trust.
“Both Taipei and Shanghai are faced with some challenges in development and there are some areas in which we can learn from each other,” he said. “I hope this forum can help promote cyclic economy in both of our cities and make us models in this area. I also wish the forum will be cyclic and cross-Strait relations will keep developing peacefully.”
At the forum, representatives from the two cities shared ideas on health, culture, public housing and urban renovation, environmental protection and civil services.
Before attending the forum, the Shanghai delegation visited public houses, ecological water treatment facilities and an electronics company in the Taiwan capital.
Zhou Bo, executive vice mayor of Shanghai, delivers a keynote speech at the Taipei-Shanghai Forum in Taipei on Thursday.
Zhou Bo, executive vice mayor of Shanghai, said the forum had carried out a series of exchanges of mutual benefit.
