Interview: Barcelona committed to boosting ties with China: deputy mayor-Xinhua

Interview: Barcelona committed to boosting ties with China: deputy mayor

Source: Xinhua| 2024-08-03 01:15:00|Editor: huaxia

BARCELONA, Spain, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- "Barcelona backs China" is the main message behind a fresh round of commercial missions to the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Shanghai, Barcelona's Deputy Mayor for Economy told Xinhua in an interview on Friday.

Jordi Valls led a business delegation to the cities in the second week of July.

"We visited Shenzhen and Shanghai, but we also want to strengthen relations with other cities that are leading the way in China, and that are capable of making great contributions to Barcelona and Europe," said Valls.

Shenzhen and Barcelona signed a sister cities memorandum three years ago, while next year will mark 25 years since Shanghai and the Spanish city formalized an institutional relationship.

"We have two different cultures, two different worlds, but with a mutual interest in a sea of globalization that can't be ignored and that we have to navigate and manage, which makes strengthening the relationship of trust between Asia and these Chinese cities and Barcelona essential for us," added Valls.

In Shenzhen, the Spanish delegates signed an agreement with Chinese companies in the audiovisual sector, which Barcelona is particularly interested in promoting as the host of the ISE (Integrated Systems Europe) audiovisual trade fair.

The delegation also visited Chery's research and innovation center in Shanghai. Spanish Electric Vehicle (EV) producer Ebro and Chinese automaker Chery signed an agreement recently to assemble and manufacture vehicles in Barcelona.

Shenzhen Airlines was another stop along the way for the Spanish delegates. The airline "has a new route that began about a year ago with three direct flights to Barcelona", according to Valls. He added that the Shanghai city council "has shown great support for the direct flight between Shanghai and Barcelona that we will inaugurate on Aug. 26."

Barcelona is one of Spain's and Europe's major tourist destinations, and the Spanish tourism board Turespana reported in June that direct air connections between Spain and China will increase by 49.8 percent this summer. Turespana has planned a series of marketing sessions to promote Spain as a tourist destination in Shanghai this November.

"Asian tourism is very attractive for us because they are not usually tourists who are just looking for sun and sand, but rather cultural tourism, getting to know a city well and wanting to learn more about its culture," said Valls.

"We are a city with tourism but we don't want to live exclusively from tourism, we're interested in strengthening our economic model, growing the industrial sector in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, and expanding the sectors of start-ups, research and innovation," he told Xinhua.

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