Rais of Tatarstan meets the Mayor of Shanghai

On 22 May, speaking at his meeting with the Mayor of Shanghai Gong Zheng during his working trip to China, the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov said: “We have come to Shanghai as members of an official Russian delegation headed by the Chairman of our government to take part in the Russia-China business forum. It is s reciprocal visit of the Russian delegation after the most important visit of the Chairman of China Xi Jinping to Russia.  This proves really unprecedented relations between our countries.”   At their meeting the parties marked the high level of Tatarstan-China cooperation with 7 agreements signed with Chinese provinces and the trade and economic representative office of Tatarstan working in Beijing. 

“We can see the annual growth of trade turnover between Tatarstan and China which last year increased by more than 58 per cent and exceeded 1.6bn dollars,” Rustam Minnikhanov said but at the same time he stated the necessity to analyze which other spheres the business communities can work in. As an example he gave the cooperation in IT, logistics and healthcare spheres and proposed to develop relations between scientific communities. 

In his turn the Mayor of Shanghai said: “You have been to our city many times so we consider you to be our close friend.” He told in detail how Shanghai economy changed because of the Covid-19 epidemic and said that active work in deepening the cooperation between countries will be useful for everyone. 

“China and Russia are united by common mountains and rivers. We are neighbours who trust each other, and friendly relations between Shanghai and Tatarstan in economics, sports and tourism are established on the background of these cooperation,” Gong Zheng said. 

He especially thanked Rustam Minnikhanov for sharing experience of holding the WorldSkills champion ship as Shanghai is planning to organize the competition in 2026. 

In his turn the Rais of Tatarstan expressed his gratitude to colleagues for their help during the pandemic, in particular for procuring equipment to manufacture the protection gear. 

After parties discussed issues of cooperation in education and possibility of opening direct flights from Kazan to Shanghai, Gong Zheng invited Tatarstan to take part in the Shanghai tourist forum “as it will be rather interesting for residents of your republic to visit China and for us – to visit Tatarstan. Unfortunately I have never been to your republic but want to go there very much.” 

In conclusion Rustam Minnikhanov invited the Mayor of Shanghai and a delegation from the city to the big business forum planned to be held in Kazan this autumn, which is aimed at expansion of business contacts with China.