The Shanghai-San Francisco Sister City Business Forum, hosted by the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce (Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce) and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, was held in Yangpu on the afternoon of April 20. Chen Jing, Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and President of the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (SPAFFC); London Breed, Mayor of San Francisco; and Zhou Haiying, Head of Yangpu District, attended and addressed the forum. Also present were Shen Xin, Secretary General of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries; Wang Xiaohan, Executive Vice President of the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce and Executive Vice President of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce; and Fu Jihong, Vice President of SPAFFC. Guests from China and the U.S. gathered in Yangpu to exchange sentiments of friendship, discuss cooperation and seek common development.

Chen sincerely welcomed Mayor Breed and the San Francisco delegation, expressing his heartfelt thanks to the San Francisco Bay Area Council for its positive contributions to the economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S. He noted that San Francisco is an important port city in the U.S., a leading city in global climate governance, a major technology R&D base in the world, as well as a key financial and economic center on the west coast of the U.S. Since becoming sister cities in 1980, Shanghai and San Francisco have carried out substantial and practical cooperation and exchanges in economy, trade and culture in the past 40 years. He sincerely hoped that through the forum, more companies in Shanghai will visit San Francisco to seek new opportunities, and he also welcomed more companies in San Francisco to Shanghai to share new opportunities.

Addressing the forum, Breed said San Francisco and Shanghai are sister cities with a long history of close economic and cultural exchanges. As an international metropolis on the west coast of the U.S., San Francisco has a lot of similarities with Shanghai, and both cities are economic hubs in respective countries. With a long history and common values, the two sides are actively adapting themselves to global changes, have brought together multitudes of high-tech companies and talents, are supportive of innovation, have the courage to make changes, and have continuously made history. San Francisco is willing to leverage its advantage in local cooperation, to build more bridges to promote the friendship between the two peoples, and to meet the 45th anniversary of the sister city relationship between the two cities through deeper cooperation.

Over the years, Yangpu has worked with San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay Area Council to promote the mutually-beneficial and win-win development of the Chinese and U.S. business communities, and the two sides have carried out rounds of cooperation in technology finance, innovation & entrepreneurship, culture and other fields, thus cementing cooperation and deepening friendship, said Zhou. He hoped that through the forum, the two sides will work together to build a two-way bridge by treating each other with sincerity, to further leverage the advantage of both sides in the agglomeration of universities, companies and talents, develop new space for trade and investment, give play to the linking role of civil institutions, and jointly deliver various cultural activities, to bring the people of the two cities closer.

At the forum, the guests witnessed the signing of an MOU between the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. The representatives of the San Francisco Bay Area Council, China Eastern Airlines, Joyu, Weiheng Intelligence, TMiRob and ZD delivered speeches.