EU-China

During 2015-2016, a total of 24 pilot projects between European and Chinese cities in a wide range of areas including environmental technologies, urban development (smart-city), university & research cooperation, aerospace, health care, agribusiness, food certification, energy efficiency/low carbon development, etc. As of end of April 2016, 14 MoUs had been signed (additionally to the more than 20 from the CETREGIO cooperation). Many of them are B2B (e.g. Fira de Barcelona – Tianfu New District for Chengdu Smart City Congress). Pilot projects included:

1.   West-Midlands – Guangzhou / Tianjin

Issue 1: Green (Environmental) Technology Cooperation

  • SMEs missions to Tianjin. Cooperation with the UK-China Biotech Fund
  • Energy Efficiency and Low Carbon Development through District Heating (Keele University)
  • Possible support by British Embassy through the UK-China Research and Innovation Partnership Fund (also Newton Fund). Contact with UK Embassy in China

Issue 2: Infrastructure and Smart City Cooperation

  • Cooperation with Tianjin Airport Economic Area with Wolverhampton Aerospace Cluster & Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone towards

Issue 3: Health Care and BioTech – the Bridge model

  • Cooperation between WM universities and businesses to access biotech sector in China (includes medical research & technology). -Cooperation of Medilink (UK Medical Association) and Chinese companies

Issue 4: British Week in Tianjin

  • Tianjin DRC wants to run a this British Week within the Tianjin International Trade fair. Event to include, B2B matching events, cultural activities, lectures & seminars
  • Next Step: West Midlands Mission to China (Sept 2016): http://www.wmeuropeanservice.eu/china/missions/mission-to-tianjin-guangzhou-24th-september-1st-october-2016

2. Barcelona – Wuhan / Chengdu

Issue 1: Smart City Cooperation

  • Smart City World Expo: Fira de Barcelona cooperation with Tianfu New City of Chengdu towards the establishment of Smart City Expo World Congress in China
  • Support to SMEs and Innovation: Cooperation between the Catalonian Regional Agency ACCIO and the DRC Sichuan and DRC Wuhan on green city, smart city and industry 4.0.

Issue 2: Industrial cooperation

  • Automotive cooperation – mission to China (April 2016)
  • Cooperation between the Association of Small and Middle Size Companies in Catalonia, the Barcelona Design Center and Wuhan and Shantou.

Issue 3: Academic Education & Research

  • Cooperation between ESCI-UPF School of International Studies, the University of Blanquerna and Wuhan University.

3. Dublin – Wuhan / Chengdu

Issue 1: Smart City Development

  • Exchange of Dublin smart-city strategy with Chengdu and Wuhan
  • IT SMEs from The Digital Hub; software companies Maithu and Pixel Soup
  • ICT solutions, big-data cooperation: Exchange of best practices (apps, etc) from Dublin, Chengdu and Wuhan

Issue 2: University and R&D cooperation

  • Dublin City University cooperation with Sichuan and Shantou Universities
  • Institute of Technology Blanchardstown cooperation with Shantou professional training institutions

Issue 3: Green Technology & Innovation cooperation

  • DCU Cleantech Innovation Campus cooperation with Chengdu Economic & Technology Development Zone (CETDZ)
  • The Green Way cluster with clusters in Wuhan and Chendgu

Issue 4: Tourism cooperation between Fingal and Chengdu

  • Discussions with Sichuan Province Private Association of Travel Service (SAPTS) and with Chengdu Tourism Bureau towards establishing special tourism routes for Chinese travelers to Europe.

4. Lyon – Guangzhou

Issue 1: Cooperation of Start-Ups / Clusters

  • Support to start-ups of cluster LyonFrenchTech by Guangzhou Development District (GDD) – networking, matching Chinese market
  • Mission to China in June 2015. Following innovative start-ups from Lyon travelled to China:
    • Evotion (robotics – www.evotion.fr),
    • Navya (autonomous, driverless electric vehicles),
    • Bidul and Co (accessories for smart phones and tablets – www.bidulandco.com),
    • My Blue Ship (smart mobility chips – http://www.myblue-ship.com/)
    • Forcity (3D modelling services for urban development – www.forcity.com/).
    • 2 companies of these were involved in follow-mission to China in March 2016

Issue 2: Smart City Technologies

  • Bringing smart city companies from Lyon to China. Involving Lyon smart-city in the development of the Sino-Singapore Knowledge City in GDD

Results:

  • The robots company EVOTION (http://www.evotion.com/fr/) started a cooperation with the Chinese company ARTIGENT ROBOTICS from Chengdu during the March mission to China.
  • MoUs were signed on tourism cooperation as well as between the Chambers of Commerce of Lyon and Guangzhou.
  • Cooperation envisaged on smart city technologies with Smart Electric Lyon

5. Andalucía Smart City Cluster – Shantou

Issue 1 – Smart City to Shantou

  • Elaboration of concrete projects for the new coastal city of Zhugang New Town (Huaqiao Xinjin Section of East Coast New Town – the reclamation area). Areas include design of energy-saving buildings, waste and water treatment and waste treatment and smart transportation system. 4 Companies from Andalucía visited Shantou.

Issue 2 – Port Cooperation

  • Visit of Shantou representatives to Málaga in June 2015
    Promising exchange of ideas and experiences on cruise and cargo
    Andalucia Smart City Cluster represented the Port of Málaga in Shantou in March 2016 and renewed the interest for this bilateral cooperation

Next Step: Visit of Shantou delegation to Málaga in June/July 2016. Preparation of report for EU-China Summit in July 2016

6. Tianjin – Lazio

  • Italian Week in Tianjin (see also here)
  • Fiuggi – Tianjin vocational education cooperation (Hotel Management High School IPSSEOA)
  • Aerospace – Aeronautical cooperation
  • Port cooperation between Civitavecchia and Tianjin Port
  • Research & Development Cooperation: CNR (National Research Council) and Tianjin Research Commission
  • Movie-Park Cooperation between Cinecitta Studios and Tianjin
  • Tourism cooperation