Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng met with Carola Veit, president of the Hamburg Parliament on Tuesday.

Gong said that Hamburg is one of the most closely-related and active international friendly cities with Shanghai. Since the establishment of friendly relations between the two cities in 1986, practical cooperation has been carried out in fields such as economy and trade, science and technology, culture, education, health and urban construction, resulting in fruitful achievements.

As China's largest economic center, Shanghai is continuously deepening the construction of the "five centers" and enhancing the "four major functions," actively expanding its opening-up policies, and strengthening international cooperation.

Hamburg is an important economic center in Germany, and there is a wish for both cities to deepen economic and trade cooperation, promote exchange in fields such as electronic engineering and mechanical manufacturing, support enterprises in investing and starting businesses in each other's cities, and achieve common development.

Shanghai will continue to create a first-class, market-oriented, rule-of-law and international business environment, helping all types of enterprises, including Hamburg companies, achieve better development in Shanghai.

As both Shanghai and Hamburg are port cities, there is a desire to deepen cooperation in the port sector, establish more intelligent and efficient logistics channels, and promote cultural exchanges to enhance mutual understanding about achieving higher-level mutual benefits and win-win results.

Veit said that Shanghai has achieved many important achievements in urban construction and economic development and has brought benefits and security to its citizens. This field visit to Shanghai has left a deep impression on her and Hamburg is proud to have Shanghai as a friendly city.

By increasing face-to-face communication and exchanges, Hamburg looks forward to enhancing mutual understanding, further developing relations on the basis of decades-long solid friendship between the two cities, and deepening cooperation in various fields with Shanghai.

Furthermore, Hamburg wishes to inject more vitality into the development of both cities and contribute to promoting friendly development between Germany and China.