Tianjin's sister cities discuss deeper cooperation

Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, hopes to boost collaboration with its Chinese sister city Tianjin on their shared path toward reaching net zero carbon emissions, a senior Victoria official said at the end of April.

"Ours is the first sister-city relationship between Australia and China. I'm the first person from the government of Victoria to visit China after the three years of COVID-19," Nicholas Reece, deputy lord mayor of Melbourne, told China Daily. "We are very committed to relations, and to more business-to-business and people-to-people ties."

At the top of Reece's agenda is for the two cities to "seek more opportunities and pursue additional focuses", including carbon reduction and advanced smart manufacturing.

"Tianjin and Melbourne, as well as China and Australia, are at the leading edge of the goal to achieve net zero targets. We know that we can't do it on our own, and we need the help from our friends, like Tianjin," he said. "Tianjin has great manufacturing, energy and smart technology capabilities that can help us get to net zero."

Meanwhile, business delegates from another of Tianjin's sister cities — Manchester in the United Kingdom — held online discussions with their counterparts in Tianjin in March in a bid to advance collaboration in the field.

"The two cities have come up with a concrete three-year plan (2023-25) to pursue solid projects," said Luan Jianzhang, director of the Tianjin Foreign Affairs Office.

The efforts are related to China's 2030 peak carbon and 2060 carbon neutrality goals.

A Manchester low carbon high-tech center will be set up in the high-tech zone in Tianjin's Binhai New Area.

"We will explore practical opportunities for cooperation on hydrogen energy, green manufacturing and new energy," said Tom Duke, deputy trade commissioner for China at the Department for International Trade of the British Embassy in China.

Luan also noted that Tianjin initiated a 10-point action plan at the beginning of this year in a bid to accelerate economic growth, to which the partnerships with sister cities will contribute, he said.

Statistics indicate that Tianjin's GDP grew 5.5 percent to 371.5 billion yuan ($53.7 billion) during the first quarter of this year.