The programme was designed for four European and 20 Chinese experts from several provinces that were supported by the project coordinator, a project assistant and local interpreters. The training session consisted of five days of lectures, field visits and a final workshop. European regional policy experts from Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands delivered lectures based on their practical experiences on integrated territorial development. The event was primarily conceived as a follow-up event to the information session that took place in Germany and the UK in May/June 2013 and supported the establishment of direct linkages between European and Chinese regions.
The seminar took place in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Guangxi has 46 million inhabitants and Nanning is the political and economic centre (population of 6.6 million inhabitants). The training commenced with a one day conference about different aspects of integrated territorial development at the headquarters of the Guangxi Development and Reform Commission in Nanning. The second day was devoted to field visits in the Nanning area. On the afternoon, delegates were transferred to Port of Beihai, located 200km southeast from Nanning. Here, European and Chinese experts held a half-day workshop with local authorities and visited two urban development projects in Yintan area of Beihai City. On the next day, participants visited the Fangcheng Port, a harbour close to Vietnam. On the evening, experts flew to Guilin, the second largest city of Guangxi. Here, a closing half-day workshop was held, in which experts from the European countries and China reflected about gained experiences and the implications for future cooperation.
The programme was designed to deliver the basic knowledge on EU and Chinese experiences in integrated urban-rural territorial development. In order to achieve a truly exchange of knowledge on regional policy, local DRC delegates were asked to deliver lectures of national, regional and local integrated territorial development approaches. After the training session, participants were able to compare European and Chinese strategies and instruments towards integrated territorial development. Training also provided interesting references for European regional policy makers.
The report giver further details on all contents and sessions: