Jorritsma ratifies sustainable cooperation Shenzhen

 Mayor Annemarie Jorritsma and alderman Ben Scholten visited last weekend the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Jorritsma and her Chinese counterpart Xu signed a Memorandum of Understanding, or a partnership. 

 The Dutch consulate in Guangzhou plays a coordinating role in the partnership, which Almere, in collaboration with Amsterdam and Eindhoven, the Netherlands gives concrete form.

In the coming years, this cooperation on expanding Chinese investment in Almere and the region, student exchanges, cooperation in urban development and the further development of 'green processes' in run-up to the Floriade 2022. Shenzhen is right now part of the international network of 'Growing Green Cities'.

The collaboration aims to give. Economic development of both cities a boost To achieve a good relationship with the local government of great importance, as are companies in China and the government is still closely linked. With the strong growth of the Chinese economy in recent years and the associated internationalization of many companies, China has become increasingly interesting to attract foreign investment.

In Almere, as part of the Amsterdam region has nearly 20 percent of the workforce a job at a company with foreign background and the number of Chinese companies in the region is growing.

Shenzhen is located next to Hong Kong in the Pearl River Delta and accounts for 12 percent of China's economy. The agreement between Almere and Shenzhen is that both cities as "New Towns" have a history of 35 years. Many challenges are the same for both.