(Photo from Jiefang Daily)
Taicang City in Jiangsu Province, a top investment destination for German companies, held the 14th Taicang Day alongside with a forum on opening up and innovation cooperation in Munich on December 14.
The annual Taicang Day program has been held in Germany since 2008 as an important platform for economic and trade talks and people-to-people exchange.
The new edition happened in a special year that marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany. The activity attracted more than 100 famous companies including Munich Airport Group, RATIONAL and some 100 guests from universities, media outlets and environmental protection organizations.
The Bureau of Commerce of Suzhou introduced the city's advantages in geographical location, industry foundation and business environment. Taicang High-Tech Zone highlighted its achievements made in 30 years of bilateral cooperation and also inked agreements with established German brands in coffee, laser emitter and health management.
The event also unveiled three innovation centers in Berlin, Dusseldorf and Aachen. Meanwhile, representatives from German companies in Taicang, potential investors and government departments joined the panel discussion.
Taicang, located in the heart of the Yangtze River Delta, is a success story of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. Since the settlement of the Kern-Liebers in 1993, Taicang has become one of the most popular and best-performing investment choices for German companies in China. Taicang is now home to more than 460 German companies mainly engaged in high-end equipment manufacturing, auto parts, aerospace and other leading industries.
In 2001, Taicang became the first Chinese city to introduce the dual education system from Germany, a combination of apprenticeship in company and vocational education in school to train skilled workers. Today it has 18 dual education system platforms to form a multi-level technical talent training system covering secondary school, associate degree and undergraduate studies. Over the years, this system has cultivated more than 10,000 management and technical professionals.
In recognition of the fruitful cooperation, China's Ministry of Commerce and Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development named Taicang a "Sino-German Enterprise Cooperation Base" in November 2008. Today Taicang is still the only city in China to hold this title, a reflection of its good reputation in Germany's business community. More than 1,000 Germans live in Taicang all year round.
In recent years, Taicang has further expanded the economic cooperation with Germany in the fields of culture, education, science and technology, and sports. Taicang has held exchange activities such as German beer festival, soccer matches and marathons for 17 consecutive years. The city has also incorporated more and more German flavors, such as the Rothenburg German Street, the luxurious Maritim Hotel Taicang Garden and Tui Blue hotel. Other projects such as store of FC Bayern Munich and the car-themed 1886 Restaurant & Bar have also agreed to settle in Taicang High-tech Zone.
