MAYOR Yang Xiong met Jukka Mäkelä, visiting mayor of Espoo, Finland, and his delegation last Friday. Yang said Shanghai and Espoo became sister cities 16 years ago and their exchanges and cooperation are bearing fruits and benefitting the people of both cities.

Yang said the two countries have upgraded their relationship to cooperative partnership, laying a good foundation for increased trade and cooperation.

The mayor said Shanghai is pursuing innovation-driven economic growth and wants to learn from Finland’s experiences. He hoped the two cities can cooperate and form an innovation network made up of universities, companies and technology parks.