Shanghai Mayor Gong welcomes US ambassador

Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng met with US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and his delegation on Thursday.

On behalf of the Shanghai municipal government, Gong expressed his welcome to the ambassador's visit to Shanghai. He said that Shanghai has always played an important role in China-US friendly exchanges. Shanghai has established sister city relationships with San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston, and has carried out a variety of exchanges with cities and regions in the US such as New York, achieving positive results.

Currently, according to the strategic positioning of Shanghai's development by President Xi Jinping, the city is deepening the construction of the "Five Centers" and accelerating the construction of a socialist modern metropolis with global influence.

Openness is the biggest advantage and character of Shanghai, and we are willing to work with the US to strengthen exchange and cooperation, and achieve win-win development. We welcome American companies to actively participate in the Import Expo, increase their business layout in Shanghai, and hope that the two places can strengthen exchanges and cooperation in fields such as economic and trade, investment, human culture, and sister cities, the mayor said.

Shanghai will continue to create a market-oriented, rule-of-law, and international first-class business environment, and help all types of enterprises achieve better development in Shanghai.

Burns said that from all perspectives, Shanghai is one of the best cities in the world. Shanghai is the city where American companies and citizens are most concentrated in China, and it plays an important role in US-China relations.

The potential for expanding bilateral trade and investment between the US and China is huge, and we support enterprises of the two countries to expand bilateral investment. We highly agree to expand personnel exchanges, encourage American citizens to travel and study in China, including Shanghai, and welcome Chinese citizens to travel and study in the US, he said.