Shanghai One Week: Communist Party of China Seeks Development and Business in "Cooperation" | Environment | One Week
After three years, Elon Musk visited Shanghai again last week. At the end of his highly anticipated visit to China, he told Shanghai Municipal Party Secretary Chen Jining that he was "excited" about the success of Tesla's Shanghai super factory.
Chen Jining said that Tesla's cooperation and development in Shanghai has been fruitful, introduced him to the main features of Chinese path to modernization, and issued an invitation to welcome Tesla to seize the opportunities of Shanghai's modernization, urban green low-carbon development, industrial transformation and upgrading, increase investment and business layout in Shanghai, deepen cooperation in new energy vehicles, energy storage and other fields, and put more new products, new technologies and new services in Shanghai, so that science and technology can better serve a better life.
"As the economic center city of China and the forefront window of reform and opening up, Shanghai is determined to deepen high-level opening up to the outside world, actively connect with international high standard economic and trade rules, continuously create a market-oriented, rule of law, and internationalized first-class business environment, and provide long-term stable, efficient, and convenient service measures and policy supply for global enterprises' development in Shanghai," he said.
For both Shanghai and Tesla, the Shanghai super factory that set a "Tesla speed" a few years ago and started production in Shanghai has extraordinary significance. On the one hand, they play a special and crucial role in their respective development maps, as evidenced by the sustained growth in output and market share, which has added a new growth engine to both Shanghai and Tesla.
On the one hand, in the complex international environment, the multi party efforts and determination behind the Shanghai Super Factory project can be regarded as a model of open cooperation, demonstrating China's firm determination to open up to the outside world and highlighting the strong potential and attractiveness of the Chinese market.
For either party, a firm commitment to open cooperation is a wise move. This is also the steadfastness and broad mindedness that Shanghai has always shown, and is seen as a key measure to continuously enhance the city's core competitiveness on a new journey.
In addition to Musk, over the past week, Chen Jining has met with the President of Congo, Zisekdi, the Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Salazar, and relevant foreign company executives.
During the conversation, Chen Jining stated that Shanghai will be committed to expanding cooperation space in various fields and promoting open cooperation. The topics of several meetings are closely related to the core functions of the "Five Centers" that Shanghai is deepening its construction.
During the meeting with Salazar, Chen Jining introduced the construction of the Shanghai International Shipping Center and expressed his hope to strengthen communication and coordination with the International Civil Aviation Organization, deepen cooperation and exchange around green and low-carbon development, intelligent technology application, aviation hub construction, global route connectivity, and other areas.
In several meetings, Chen Jining has repeatedly emphasized that Shanghai will resolutely expand its opening up, continue to create a market-oriented, rule of law, and internationalized first-class business environment, strengthen communication and docking, provide convenient services, and enable global enterprises to continuously gain new benefits and achieve greater development achievements in Shanghai.
For Shanghai, it is also a national strategic mission to continue to expand the opening up and make greater efforts to attract foreign enterprises in Shanghai. Whether it can be the "pioneer" of Chinese path to modernization depends largely on whether it can continuously strengthen the functions of global resource allocation, scientific and technological innovation, high-end industry leadership, and opening the hub portal.
At the same time, "open cooperation" has multiple sectors for Shanghai. While opening up to the outside world globally, it is also a major task to build a central node for the domestic circulation, enhance the level of cooperation between central and local governments, departments and cities, and regions, in order to continuously improve the level of "internal opening up".
Last week, Chen Jining led a team to Beijing to have discussions with the head of the General Administration of Customs and witnessed the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the General Administration of Customs and the Shanghai Municipal Government. He stated that cooperation between the government and the city, as well as cooperation between relevant regions, is an important driving force for Shanghai to deepen high-level reform and opening up.
"This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone. Shanghai has always adhered to the principle of 'four priorities', starting from serving the overall needs of the country's opening up to the outside world, guided by institutional opening up, aligning with international high standard economic and trade rules, and accelerating the planning and implementation of a number of pilot measures for reform and opening up." Chen Jining said, "We hope to take the signing of a new round of cooperation memorandum as an opportunity to strengthen communication and coordination between the government and the city, deepen cooperation and docking, strengthen technological empowerment, and jointly promote reform and innovation in key areas to continuously achieve new breakthroughs. Together, we will create a market-oriented, rule of law, and international first-class business environment, and better serve the overall modernization construction of the country."
Last week, a delegation from the Party and government of Guizhou Province visited Shanghai for inspection, where the two regions jointly discussed plans to deepen strategic cooperation and signed a framework agreement for deepening strategic cooperation. Chen Jining stated during the symposium that deepening cooperation between Shanghai and Guizhou is an inherent need for the two regions to serve the construction of a new development pattern and the overall high-quality development of the country.
"I hope that the signing of this strategic cooperation framework agreement will serve as an opportunity to better work together and continuously expand new connotations, new spaces, and new achievements in cooperation," he said. In multiple fields such as red gene inheritance, digital economy, and consumption boosting, both regions have enormous cooperation space and are expected to achieve complementary advantages.
For Shanghai, deepening cooperation and collaboration with various regions based on the "Four Places" undoubtedly has inherent necessity and is also an important benchmark for measuring urban openness.
This was further confirmed a week later - another major leadership symposium in the Yangtze River Delta region was held as scheduled this week. Under the theme of "hand in hand with high-quality integration and forge ahead with Chinese path to modernization", the national strategy of promoting the integration of the Yangtze River Delta for five years has been endowed with new era connotation. In the deeper coordination of three provinces and one city, the profound meaning of the word "cooperation" has been realized.
