Business executives and representatives from the School of Management at Fudan University spend a week in Norway, to meet with a variety of Norwegian businesses and industries.
“Our ambition is to continue to develop the relationship with Qingdao, especially in relation to their efforts with ocean technologies,” says Anne-Grete Ellingsen, CEO of GCE NODE.
Last October, as an extension of the Norway-China Business Summit in Beijing, Kristiansand and Qingdao established a friendly cooperative city relationship. Representatives of Kristiansand Municipality, NORCE, GCE NODE and NHO Agder then travelled to Qingdao, an eastern port city with 9 million inhabitants, famous for its beer, a legacy of the German occupation more than 100 years ago.
In his opening address at the business summit in Beijing, Norwegian King Harald pointed out that offshore and maritime technology is a common feature of the two countries. And Chinese president Xi Jinping has said that Qingdao is to take a leading role for developing new maritime technology in China. Thus, stronger ties between Kristiansand and Qingdao could prove mutually beneficial.
