The working group meeting was conducted in the format of thematic sections: «Economy and investment», «Tourism and entertainment infrastructure», «Development of transport infrastructure» и «Culture and education».
The delegation from Saint Petersburg was headed by the Vice-governor of St. Petersburg – the chief of staff of the Governor’s Administration of Saint Petersburg A.N. Govorunov.
A.N. Govorunov participated in the meeting of the cooperation group of Saint Petersburg and Beijing; conducted talks with the Vice-mayor of Beijing Mr Wang Ning, head of the Chancellery of foreign affairs of the People’s Government of Beijing Mr Zhao Huiming and the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russia in China A.I. Denisov.
During the talks the Vice-mayor of Beijing stated his interest in building a Chinese-style hotel in Saint Petersburg under the name “Beijing” as well as his preparedness to encourage all sorts of cooperation between Chinese and Russian companies.
The working group meeting was conducted in the format of thematic sections: «Economy and investment», «Tourism and entertainment infrastructure», «Development of transport infrastructure» и «Culture and education».
Due to the results of the meeting, the following questions have been raised: People’s government of Beijing sending a cultural delegation to the celebration of Chinese New Year in Saint Petersburg; localization of Chinese production companies in Saint Petersburg; organizing exhibitions and seminars aimed at encouraging cooperation in the sphere of industry; organizing promotional tours for the representative of the Chinese tour companies in Saint Petersburg in 2017; development and exploitation of buses running on ecologically clean fuel; partnership of museums and musical festivals; student exchanges; realization of scientific research projects etc.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Russian Embassy in Beijing, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation in China and by the representatives of the Science and Education Ministry of Russia.
The meeting was followed by signing of the protocol. The next meeting in this format will be organized in Beijing in the first half of 2017.
On October 27, the Saint Petersburg Information and Business Center was opened in Beijing. The agreement on establishing this center was signed by the first Vice-chairman of the Committee for External Relations of Saint Petersburg S.L. Markov, the General director of the Zhongshan Lihai Investment Fund LLC Ms Kan Cian and the Vice-chairman of the Asia-Pacific Center for Development and Cooperation LLC Mr Zhang Zhuntszyun. The ceremony was accompanied by a performance of Saint Petersburg people’s ensemble –the Russian theater Moroshka.
The Center’s work started with two round tables and representatives of over 40 companies of China willing to cooperate with Saint Petersburg.
The Center assisted in advertising the tourist potential of Saint Petersburg with participation from 4 major tour operators from Saint Petersburg and 40 major tour operators from China.
Simultaneously the Saint Petersburg department of the research university Higher School of Economics conducted a seminar on the topic: Evolution of Russian education in the sphere of economics, social and humanitarian sciences.
The business part of the visit included a call at the Center for Transportation Management of the company Beijing Uni-Construction Group Co, the Beijing Pedagogical University and the National theater of performance arts.
Within the framework of Petersburg meetings from the 23rd of October, on the basis of the Russian cultural center in Beijing, theatrical courses, lessons in decorative arts – felting and doll-making were organized for the children of Russian compatriots; as well as interactive lessons of Russian.
There were cinematic releases of the movies of The Fan and Indemnity of the film production studio Lenfilm with Chinese subtitles.
St. Petersburg Universities - Saint Petersburg State University of Economics; St. Petersburg Branch of the Research University Higher School of Economics; Russian State Hydrometeorological University - presented to students in China and recruiting companies in Beijing educational opportunities in St. Petersburg.
The culmination of the cultural and business mission was the performance of the Russian theater Moroshka with a special dance and music program for 600 Russian compatriots and residents of Beijing.
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Relying on the provisions of the Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation between St. Petersburg and Beijing signed in 2009 and the development of the agreements reached by the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko and the Mayor of Beijing Wang Anshun, in 2016 in cooperation between the two cities a new format was created: a bilateral working group that 25-26 January 2016 held its first meeting in St. Petersburg.
Additional information: 576-75-02, ilinskaya@kvs.gov.spb.ru - D.R.Ilinskaya, Specialist of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg.