On June 21, the Tianjin Partner Cities Roundtable of the WEF was held in Shiing-Shen Building, Nankai University. Over 60 persons attended the meeting including Olivier Schwab (OSC), Executive Director of China, WEF, Pedro Rodriguez de Almeida, Infrastructure and Urban Development Department, WEF, competent leaders from the central government, Nankai University, and Tianjin, experts and scholars both from home and abroad and business representatives. Through cooperative and open exchanges, the participants discussed two basic topics in groups: Tianjin’s industrial upgrading and urban transformation and solution to urban traffic jam in an innovative way.

Ren Xuefeng, Vice Mayor of Tianjin, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech titled “Actively Promoting Industrial Upgrading, Creating New Carrier for Urban Development”. He pointed out that at present, Tianjin has the condition shifting from a manufacturing center to a center of service industry, which is an important task for the city and the road for Tianjin to be an international, modernized and livable city with its unique features. Only footed in development and keeping on innovation with borrowed successful experience can Tianjin find an economic transitional road suitable for its development phase and characteristics.

At the meeting, experts, scholars and business leaders expressed themselves well, summarized international experience and advanced models shifting from a manufacturing center to a center of service industry, pointed out that an integrated design should be made in industrial development, technique input, talents guarantee and supporting facilities. The relevant contents at the roundtable will be collected as reserve materials and strategic files for the Summer Davos held in September in Tianjin.