San Francisco, Shanghai get closer as sister cities
Print Edition
Edwin M. Lee, the first Chinese-American mayor of San Francisco, was in Shanghai yesterday with a delegation of nearly 100 people. He is set to push forward the sister city ties between San Francisco and Shanghai to a new level.
San Francisco, a leading technological and cultural center in the United States, boasts a 33-year sister city relationship with Shanghai.
During his stay in Shanghai, Lee plans to meet the city’s top leadership, witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Bay Area Rapid Transit and Shanghai Metro to share best practices, attend an investment seminar, and encourage cooperation between schools to promote more educational exchanges.
An MOU to renew collaboration between San Francisco Zoo and Shanghai Zoo was also signed yesterday.
Lee took out some time from his busy schedule to talk with Shanghai Daily in an exclusive interview about the trip.
Q: What’s your expectation of this trip?
A: I hope to continue the great work of our previous mayors. As sister cities, San Francisco expects to further promote cultural and educational exchanges with Shanghai, while building up closer business ties. Within our delegation, there are representatives of China SF, an ongoing program which promotes more trade, and there are people from quite a number of different departments of the city (government).
I also expect to discuss with the Shanghai leadership what is happening in San Francisco. As the first Chinese-American mayor in the city, I hope to deliver the message that sons and daughters of immigrants are becoming more confident of representing the diverse communities in the US as political and social leaders.
Even more importantly, the relationship between the US and China is the most important one in the world today. Cities like San Francisco have an opportunity to define that relationship even better. As a mayor, I believe I have a role to play to assist a stronger city-level relationship.
Q: Can you use a word or two to describe San Francisco?
A: San Francisco is an international city, valuing talent and being good at innovation for modernization. We often describe ourselves as the world capital of innovation because we have taken the best talent across our universities, and established leadership in incubating and accelerating ideas in fields like medicare, life science or clean energy.
Q: What’s the secret of San Francisco being so strong in technology?
A: If (there are) any secrets, I have built a strong platform for job creation. Allowing people to get skill sets and creating for them job opportunities are the most important things that local governments should do.
To drive job creation, you must work with small businesses as well as large ones. You have to create a spirit that everything in the government system should be helping, not producing barriers.
We are among the first cities in the US to open our government data. We release that for people to create jobs.
Q: Are there any similarities between San Francisco and Shanghai? What’s your vision for future cooperation between the two cities?
A: I have been in Shanghai at least three times with our previous mayor. Shanghai has always been an international city. It has a similar, if not larger, port structure as that in San Francisco. The two cities are both quite exposed to external cultures as so many consulates, multinational companies and global events are there.
As sister cities, we do need to enhance mutual understanding and promote further cooperation. The business community in San Francisco has yet to know details about Shanghai’s free trade zone, and I would like to invite people to introduce the opportunities offered by the pilot zone. Also, San Francisco expects to attract investment for its strategic port construction.
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