13th Seminar on EU-China Regional Policy Cooperation held in Henan

The 13th Seminar on EU-China Regional Policy Cooperation was held in Zhengzhou, Henan province, on July 18.

Representatives from the event organizers – the Department of Regional Economy of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission – and cities from China and European countries attended the event.

The participants gathered to discuss regional innovation and high-quality development of regional economy, and city representatives shared their experience and exchanged insights on EU-China regional policy cooperation.

Guo Lanfeng, director general of the Department of Regional Economy of the NDRC, said in his keynote speech that the Chinese government is now pushing forward new mechanisms for regional cooperation to address unbalanced regional development, while opening up wider to the world to create new ground for innovative cooperation.

Guo said that China and Europe, as two major civilizations and markets in the world, have made great contributions to global economic growth, and would continue pursuing high-quality development in cooperation and opening up.

Ronald Hall, principal advisor of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission, said that the European Commission is building on a rich fund of experience on regional and urban development policy with agreements signed with 14 countries and regions including China.

Hall added that the commissioner for regional policy of the European Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the vice chairman of China's NDRC in 2006 on regional policy cooperation, which served as a great framework for China-Europe regional policy cooperation for 12 years.

Bringing forward specific suggestions, Guo said the two sides should respond to global changes together, intensify policy communication, share development experience, and strengthen regional cooperation.

He said the two sides will embrace bright prospects as long as they deepen pragmatic cooperation with opening up and mutual benefit in mind.