Over 80 businesspeople attended AmCham China’s 3rd Dialogue with the Wuhan Municipal Government at Wuhan Jin Jiang International Hotel Jan. 13. Members took full advantage of the opportunity to meet local government officials led by Vice Mayor Shao Weimin to discuss how to improve the business environment and future plans for development in Wuhan. Helen Hu, Chair of the Central China Chapter’s Chinese Government Affairs Committee, raised questions summarizing the concerns of member companies, garnering responses from senior government officials from Wuhan Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Wuhan Economic and Information Commission, Wuhan National Development and Reform Commission, Customs, National Tax Bureau and other five government departments.
Keynote speaker Joseph Zadrozny, US Consul General in Wuhan, praised the effectiveness of the dialogue between US companies and the local government. He said the US Consulate General was set to expand rapidly in the coming years, and announced the first ever US-Central China Business Summit in late March, in cooperation with AmCham China. This summit will be a chance for US companies to find business opportunities in central China, and for Chinese government officials and companies to explain their needs.
The event concluded with a speech by Vice Mayor Shao. This is the third time he has attended the dialogue, and noted that the questions raised by AmCham China member companies were getting increasingly insightful and specific.
AmCham China's Helen Ye and Mark Duval speak with Vice Mayor Shao Weimin.
Recently, Wuhan has been pushing large-scale promotion of urban construction, improving the functioning of the city government, and strengthening the city’s position as a transportation hub. The city’s airport, the largest in central China, continued to increase capacity in 2015, with four new international routes to Gold Coast, Tokyo, Rome and Dubai, taking the total number of international routes to 38.
Wuhan city also approved the national comprehensive innovation and reform pilot area in 2015, which will bring huge opportunities to Wuhan. In the Municipal Government’s just-approved Thirteen Five-Year Plan, Wuhan will strengthen five development principles: Innovation, Coordination, Green, Open and Sharing. Shao also acknowledged and appreciated the hard work undertaken by both Wuhan Municipal Government and AmCham China, Central China Chapter to make the dialogue a great success.