The Mayor of Nanjing Ji Jianye is leading a 20 strong delegation of government and business leaders from Nanjing to the USA on a tour that takes in Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans, San Antonio, San Jose and Denver.
Hoping to learn about the U.S. services sector, particularly finance and tourism, the delegation aims to explore how American research institutions turn knowledge into sellable products.
Educational partnerships have already sprouted between Nanjing and Atlanta. Emory University is working with Nanjing University on two programs, including a Confucius Institute at Sammye E. Coan Middle School and through a partnership that sees the two universities exchanging faculty. Under the Emory-Nanjing Visiting Scholars Program, professors and graduate students travel back and forth to present lectures and research. To date, approximately 25 Emory scholars have been to Nanjing since the program started two years ago, and in exchange Nanjing University scholars have presented research at Emory on Supreme Court cases.
Also while in the Georgia capital of Atlanta, the delegation visited the headquarters of United Parcel Service Inc. as the company’s finance arm, UPS Capital, has recently signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with the Nanjing government earlier this year to explore how UPS can better serve the China market. “We’d also like to expand our collaboration with UPS into other fields such as logistics,” said Mayor Ji.
Deputy consul general from the Chinese consulate in Houston Xie Yunliang added, “For the past 30 years, bilateral ties have relied on interaction between the national governments, but that model is being replaced by one in which U.S. cities and states work more directly with their Chinese counterparts. Chinese companies formerly targeted the better-known coastal areas of the U.S. Urged on by China’s central government, they are now venturing deeper into fast-growing areas of the U.S. like the Southeast”.
