This commits Wales to furthering economic development links and continuing to work together with this municipality in the fields of science, technology, culture, health, education, agriculture, forestry management, environment, governance and tourism.
Whilst a visit by the First Minister to China to develop further links is to be welcomed, this is hardly groundbreaking progress.
In fact, this latest relationship merely builds on an earlier memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Chongqing Municipal Government and the Welsh Assembly Government, signed by Rhodri Morgan in 2006 in which they agreed to collaborate and co-operate in a number of areas.
As regular readers of this blog will know, I am an avid supporter of Wales going out to the World to not only trade with different nations, but to form important relationships that can help change the way we work and live.
However, I find it disappointing that in twelve years of devolution, the Welsh Government has made little progress beyond reaffirming an existing arrangement with a single Chinese City.
One would have thought that as a small trading nation, we would be choosing our partnerships carefully, especially as much of the focus of the recent trade missions was in building links between universities and businesses in both countries.
In fact, it is worth noting that according to the influential business periodical, Forbes China, Chongqing was not rated as one of the twenty five most innovative cities on the Chinese mainland this year.
Ranking | City | Administrative Levels | Province | Innovation Index |
1 | Shenzhen | City with separate budgets | Guangdong | 1 |
2 | Suzhou | Prefecture-level | Jiangsu | 0.998 |
3 | Shanghai | Municipality | - | 0.992 |
4 | Beijing | Municipality | - | 0.978 |
5 | Wujiang | County-level | Jiangsu | 0.950 |
6 | Wuxi | Prefecture-level | Jiangsu | 0.949 |
7 | Hangzhou | Provincial capital | Zhejiang | 0.945 |
8 | Kunshan | County-level | Jiangsu | 0.922 |
9 | Changshu | County-level | Jiangsu | 0.920 |
10 | Zhangjiagang | County-level | Jiangsu | 0.919 |
11 | Dalian | City with separate budgets | Liaoning | 0.892 |
12 | Dongguan | Prefecture-level | Guangdong | 0.889 |
13 | Nantong | Prefecture-level | Jiangsu | 0.879 |
14 | Ningbo | City with separate budgets | Zhejiang | 0.876 |
14 | Shaoxing | Prefecture-level | Zhejiang | 0.876 |
16 | Yixing | County-level | Jiangsu | 0.864 |
17 | Zhongshan | Prefecture-level | Guangdong | 0.861 |
18 | Wuhu | Prefecture-level | Anhui | 0.847 |
19 | Guangzhou | Provincial capital | Guangdong | 0.838 |
19 | Hefei | Provincial capital | Anhui | 0.838 |
21 | Taicang | County-level | Jiangsu | 0.814 |
22 | Tianjin | Municipality | - | 0.803 |
22 | Foshan | Prefecture-level | Guangdong | 0.803 |
24 | Yangzhou | Prefecture-level | Jiangsu | 0.784 |
25 | Changzhou | Prefecture-level | Jiangsu | 0.781 |
Not surprisingly, the number one city on the list was Shenzen in South East China (across from Hong Kong) where the total output value of high-technology products reached 1 trillion yuan (£100 billion) in 2010.
Therefore, if Wales is to build international links that benefit our universities and the technological capacity of our business community, then surely policymakers should consider innovation hotspots like Shenzen.
But given the size of Wales, perhaps it should not be large cities like Shenzen or Chongqing that should be the focus of the Welsh Government, especially as they would also be developing partnerships with other economies looking for trade links with the most populous areas of China.
For example, businesses from Sheffield have also recently taken part in a trade mission to Chongqing as they seek out international trade opportunities. And in the same week that Carwyn Jones was signing his new MOU, the Belgian port of Antwerp was entering into agreements with the city for training purposes and to create trade partnerships.
So where should Wales focus its effort on building stronger links with China?
It is worth noting that more than half of cities on the list of the most innovative in China are far smaller than Chongqing.
Indeed, of the top ten, four have a population of less than two million and are located less than two hours’ drive from the business giant that is Shanghai.
Given their small size, perhaps these are the cities that Wales has more in common with and, more importantly, would be more willing to have a closer relationship than the one we currently enjoy with Chongqing.
The Welsh Government remains determined to focus all of its efforts on one Chinese city, but surely we should start to build links with some of the smaller innovative cities in China?
At the very least, it would enable universities and businesses to identify new opportunities and establish a more direct and less competitive route into one of the World’s fastest growing economies.
