In addition to the mayor, the reception held for a delegation from the City of Ningbo was also attended by the president of the City Council Dorotea Pešić Bukovac and vice-mayor Miroslav Matešić.
Wishing a warm welcome to the guests, mayor Obersnel reminded that the City of Rijeka had already established friendly cooperation with two Chinese cities, Dalian and Qingdao. He pointed out that he sees the largest potentials for cooperation between Rijeka and Ningbo in the field of port activities – not only has in Rijeka a port enlargement project been initiated, but preconditions are being introduced for the construction of a logistic base, by all means, of utmost importance for the future co-operation between the two cities.
The delegation from Ningbo is led by mayor Mao Guanglie, and in addition to the representatives of the city authorities' institution,s the delegation also included three representatives of the economy: a representative of the company Ningbo Foreign Enterprises Service & Trade that for a longer period has been engaged in offering services to foreign companies in business activities with China which is part of the system of the city office responsible for economic co-operation, a representative of the company Ning Shing Industrial, that imports wine and wide-consumption products and a representative of the company Conda Art Material, that already imports beech wood from Croatia and has well-established co-operation with Exportdrvo. The delegation was escorted by the representatives of the Chinese Embassy in Croatia.
Ningbo mayor Mao Guanglie thanked the Rijeka mayor for the invitation, emphasising that he believes that the two cities will co-operate in the field of import and export and that they will manage to encourage Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Croatia, and Croatian entrepreneurs to find their business interest in the territory of the City of Ningbo. He also invited the mayor to visit next year in June the annual fair "Zhejiang Investment and Trade Fair" together with a delegation composed of city representatives, as well as Rijeka entrepreneurs.
Further to the representatives of the City of Rijeka, the delegation from the City of Ningbo met with the heads of the Port of Rijeka Authority, the Port of Rijeka and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce – County Chamber Rijeka.
The City of Ningbo has 6 million inhabitants and is a sea port in Zhejiang province, which 33 km long bridge across Hangzhou bay connects with the port of Shanghai. Ningbo is the driving force of the economy on China's eastern coast. The city has a reputation as the strongest Chinese exporter of electrical equipment, textiles, food products and industrial tools.
The port of Ningbo has a reputation as the world's busiest port, and is in the second position in the world by tons of bulk cargo, and occupies the seventh position by container trans-shipment.
Ningbo is a city with 4 universities, an international airport, developed railway and road networks, an underground railway network under construction, they have the Economic and Technology Development Zone, the National Hi-Tech Industrial Zone, the Free Zone and the Nordic Industrial Park – the first of this kind that is 100% owned by foreigners. Tourism is also an important economic activity of Ningbo.
The delegation of Ningbo visited Rijeka after a presentation organised at the Ministry of the economy, work and entrepreneurship of the Republic of Croatia dedicated to Croatian infrastructural projects in the pubic sector.
(S.R.)