Three pilot cities
Shenyang - Chongqing - Chengdu
On November 5th 2010 Ms. Lagarde, French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, and Mr. Chen, Chinese Minister of Commerce, signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (see Background) on economic and commercial cooperation in terms of eco-districts, in the presence of Presidents Sarkozy and Hu.
The cities of Chengdu, Chongqing and Shenyang have been selected as pilot cities for this MOU, for implementation of Franco-Chinese projects.
- Shenyang (population >7 M) is an industrial city in the North East of China, with numerous industries on its territory: steelworks (BenGang), automobile manufacturing (Brilliance) and mechanical construction plants.
There are over 355 eco-enterprises in Shenyang, most of them (e.g. Zhenxin, Guodian, Longda Environment) particularly interested in partnerships with foreign companies for successful implementation of their projects.
- The self-governing municipality of Chongqing (>32 M inhabitants), located on the Yangtze in the West of China, is a major logistics centre and one of China’s six main industrial bases. Like Beijing and Shanghai, it has its own international advisors, whose assignments specifically include orienting the city towards sustainable development.
There are over 1,000 local eco-enterprises and several concrete projects in the process of implementation call for French expertise.
- Chengdu (population >12 M), capital of the province of Sichuan (Central China), is destined to become the biggest transport and logistics hub in Western China thanks to the “Go West” policy and major infrastructure projects.
Key local industrial players are setting up some highly innovative projects, with synergies already in existence.
