100-day countdown: Hangzhou gets ready for G20 summit
Friday marks the 100-day count-down to the G20 summit which will be held in southeastern China’s Hangzhou city, Zhejiang Province on September 4 to 5.
HANGZHOU IS READY!
Some 5,500 local people attended a count-down event in the city’s Huanglong Stadium. The participants all showed their confidence that they will be able to host a good summit. Similar count-down activities were also held elsewhere in the city.
After the convention, the Hangzhou Municipal government held a press briefing on the final preparations of the G20 summit. Zhao Yide, Secretary of CPC Hangzhou municipal committee, a top official in Hangzhou city, said that all the facilities are basically in place.
WHAT IS G20 SUMMIT 2016 ABOUT?
Initiated in 1999, the international forum has 20 members covering 19 individual countries, along with the European Union. It is a top forum for international cooperation on the most important issues on the global economic and financial agenda.
It is the first ever G20 summit to be hosted in China. Under the theme of “Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected, and Inclusive World Economy”, the forum this year will highlight development issues from a global viewpoint and work on an action plan for implementing the United Nation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
(Watch the animation video to learn more about this year’s summit.)
CHINA’S ROLE
The G20 summit comes at a crucial transitional period for the global economy which faces plenty of challenges. Hopes are high that the G20 members will use the meeting to tackle many of these economic problems.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday that China hopes to contribute to the world’s economic growth together with other countries.
“We look forward to seeking common solutions with other parties, and applying Chinese know-how to contribute to steady growth and give new impetus for further development,” Wang said.
“We look forward to helping transform the G20 from a crisis management mechanism to a long-term governance mechanism that can direct global economic growth and lead global economic cooperation,” he added.
A GREAT CHANCE TO RENOVATE HANGZHOU
As Hangzhou is preparing for the coming summit, the local government is using the opportunity to upgrade the city’s infrastructure.
The governor of Zhejiang Province, Li Qiang, said the G20 summit will be a good opportunity for Hangzhou to upgrade the whole city and an important window to promote the city as a booming and rising international city.
It will also be an opportunity to renovate old neighborhoods in parts of the city in need of an upgrade. One example of such a neighborhood is Sixin Fang built in the 1920s. It used to be a ‘high-class’ residential area but a high number of restaurant businesses since 1980s have made the place ‘messy’ and ‘chaotic’.
(Watch the video to for more as the innovation is underway and how locals benefit.)
AN ECONOMY DRIVEN BY TOURISM&E-COMMERCE
Hangzhou is well known for its beautiful scenery. Official data shows that in the first three months of 2016 alone, the city received over 27 million tourists.
It’s also the home of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s headquarters. Alibaba opened the country’s first e-station in Tonglu county in Hangzhou, where villagers can pick up the goods they purchase online and also learn how to open up their own online stores.
It has already opened 183 village stations in Tonglu county. And its ambitious goal is to open service stations like this in 100,000 villages across China in the next 3 to 5 years.
“Besides establishing a logistics network that can reach villages, we hope the government can actively support the development of e-commerce in rural areas. We also hope to attract more talented young people to come back to their hometown and nurture some local enterprises that have potential to grow in the e-commerce sector,” said Tang Zhongqiang, operations manager of Alibaba business sector.
E-commerce in Hangzhou