A six member delegation led by Mr. Ye Zhaoyang, Deputy Director General of Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce visited Lucknow on 24th April and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Lucknow Municipality to establish sister city relations between Lucknow and Wenzhou. The MoU was initialed by Shri Udayraj Singh, Municipal Commissioner Lucknow and Mr. Ye Zhaoyang, DDG, Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

2.    As per the provisions of the MoU, both sides will carry out, exchanges and cooperation in various forms in the fields of trade, culture, education, tourism between Wenzhou and Lucknow. Cooperation between enterprises of both cities shall be actively promoted and the investment in each other encouraged for the complementary advantages. Enterprises of both cities shall be encouraged to participate in exhibitions held in the other city. Educational institutions in both cities will also be supported in international exchange and cooperation with each other.

3.    It may be noted that Wenzhou (located in Zhejiang province) is one of the key entrepreneurial hubs in Eastern China and is famous for pioneering the “Wenzhou Model of Growth”. The city is known for its private enterprises, in particular, SME’s, some of whom have made it big globally. Its core industries include leather products (largest production hub of shoes in the world), furniture and small commodity exports.

4.    Earlier last year, Wenzhou became the first city in mainland China to host an “India China Economic and Cultural Center” dedicated to channelizing investments from Wenzhou into India. An India China (Wenzhou) Business and Investment Forum along with an India Culture Week was also organized earlier in June 2016 in Wenzhou.

5.    The proposal to establish sister city relations with Lucknow stems from both cities commonality in having a good leather industry, as Wenzhou’s leading leather manufacturers have already had exchanges with their counterparts from Lucknow. A 12 member Wenzhou Footwear Sector delegation had earlier visited Lucknow in August 2015, and AOKANG Group (one of China’s leading shoe retailers) also based out of Wenzhou, was exploring options to set up a sales cum manufacturing unit around Lucknow city. In addition, there is also a proposal from Wenzhou Shoe Polytechnic to open a center in Lucknow.

Shanghai 
25 April 2016