Consul General Ma Qiang Attends Online Conference on Exchanges and Cooperation between Jiaxing and Scotland

2021-04-30 17:00

On 29 April, Consul General Ma Qiang joined with Chen Yanqin, Vice President of Zhejiang Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Dean Lockhart MSP, Martin McDermott, Head of the Scottish Government Office in China to address the webinar on international exchanges and cooperation between Jiaxing, Zhejiang and Scotland. Over 110 guests including provosts of Moray, East Dunbartonshire and Falkirk, representatives from governments, business and education sectors of both sides dialed in.

Consul General Ma said that Jiaxing, the birth place of the Communist Party of China one century ago, is also a driving force in Yangtze River Delta Integration and China's dual circulation strategy with distinctive connectivity and accessibility. Jiaxing's vision for open, innovative and green development finds commonality in Scotland's future development plans. Moreover, the strong complementarity in innovation resources makes the two sides natural partners. He expected to see more tangible results from their win-win cooperation.

Speaking of the current challenges in China-UK relations, Consul General called on the two sides to firmly grasp the overall development direction of China-UK engagement from a strategic height. He stressed that China and the UK need to respect each other's core interests and major concerns, properly manage differences so as to push forward healthy and stable bilateral relations.

Ms Chen Yanqin, Dean Lockhart MSP and other speakers all hailed the fruitful links between China and Scotland. They are committed to working with all stakeholders to strengthen ties in trade, education, sci-tech and people-to-people exchanges.

Attendees from Zhejiang municipal bureaux of commerce, education, sci-tech and Jiaxing University, together with their counterparts from SDI, Moray Council and the University of Edinburgh made presentations. They are all keen to resume in-person visits as soon as allowed.