On November 19, Shanghai Academy Karamay Training Center officially inaugurated. The Seminar on Building Karamay into An Internationalized Regional Hub City, sponsored by the Shanghai Academy Karamay Base and co-organized by Karamay Research Center for Social and Economic Development and the Shanghai Liaison Office of the Karamay People’s Government, was held at Shanghai Academy. Wen Xueguo, Executive Vice President of Shanghai Academy, and Jiang Dongdong, Deputy Secretary of the Karamay Committee of the CPC and Chief Commander of Shanghai’s Assistance of Karamay addressed the event respectively. The successful holding of the seminar has unveiled a new mode of Shanghai’s assistance of Karamay. It embodies the“1+2+3+X” mode of Shanghai’s assistance to Karamay in areas such as education, health care, finance, information, science and technology, and tourism, since the official start of Shanghai’s support of Karamay City in July 2015 in accordance with the plan of the Central Government.

Wen Xueguo said in his speech that Shanghai Academy is a new type of think tank co-founded by CASS and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. We aim to build a new high-level and internationalized think tank with Chinese characteristics, by giving full play to the advantages of CASS as a national think tank and Shanghai as the forefront of China’s reform and opening up. After nearly 60 years of development and construction, Karamay has become an important petrochemical base in China and a new industrial city under key construction in Xinjiang. At a time when China vigorously advocates the strategy of the Belt and Road Initiative and Karamay’s strategic role in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is becoming increasingly important, Karamay City is facing major issues for a new round of development. For example, how to seize the opportunities for development based on its realistic foundation, further deepen the innovation and transformation of the city, achieve industrial breakthroughs, functional upgrades, complete facilities and system optimization, and strive to enhance the international connectivity and regional influence of Karamay City. It is of great significance to hold the seminar in Shanghai today.

Jiang Dongdong said that Karamay is located in the northwestern margin of the Junggar Basin and the central area of Eurasia. The proposal of the strategic concept of “Silk Road Economic Belt” in China provides a rare historic opportunity for the implementation of Karamay’s strategy and injects a strong driving force. On the basis of careful analysis of the development law of resource-based cities and the advantageous conditions of Karamay in location, talents and industries, the Karamay Committee of the CPC and Karamay Municipal Government proposed the development concept of “based in western China, facing Central Asia and the World and Thinking outside the Box”. They have determined the development strategy of building an international regional hub city and global petroleum city. Shanghai and Karamay are both important cities along the Maritime Silk Road and the Silk Road. In order to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation between the two cities, expand channels of industrial connection, and promote economic and social development of Karamay, the Karamay Municipal People’s Government and Shanghai Academy signed a strategic cooperation agreement in August 2017 and set up the Karamay Base of Shanghai Academy, which has comprehensively promoted and deepened exchanges between each side and opened a new page in the cooperation and exchange between the two places. Experts and scholars speak out freely, exchange ideas, share experiences, and brainstorm in a wider area and at a deeper level, which has milestone significance in further bringing new ideas, innovating the development path, and enhancing the development quality of Karamay.

Well-known scholars from various colleges and universities, experts from think tanks, and leaders of government, enterprises, and public institutions are invited to conduct in-depth discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of Karamay in building an internationalized regional center, target positioning of Karamay and the strategy for different stages in achieving the positioning, and the organic combination between building a “global petroleum city” and an “international regional hub city.”

Yang Jun, Vice President of Shanxi University, said in his speech that Karamay occupies an important position with a good economic foundation, abundant capital accumulation, and obvious late-mover advantages, however, there are also such development dilemmas as dominance by one single industry. Therefore, there’s an urgent need to expand the urban size, build a smart city, develop cultural tourism, build a highland of talents and innovation, intensify opening up and integration, and promote the circulation of commodities and foreign trade. Cheng Jian, Director of Shanghai World Cities Day Coordination Center, argued that Karamay should strengthen cooperation and exchange with Shanghai as a city along the Belt and Road, enhance economic and trade cooperation in areas such as new energy and new materials; promote energy exploration and carry out bilateral financial cooperation with Shanghai in terms of finance; and develop helicopters, rock climbing, hiking and other characteristic tourism resources. Dr. Cong Xiaonan, a researcher at the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believed that, to let Karamay play the role as a regional hub, we must make it a key point along the development line, based on the analysis of the evolution of the spatial structure of China’s urban system. In the wave of mobile Internet and cloud computing, we should pay attention to the role of information technology, and build a smart city and information center along the Silk Road Economic Belt in the transformation and upgrading of Karamay.

Zhang Xueliang, Deputy Dean of the School of Urban and Regional Science, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shao Jian, Director of Research Division, Shanghai Academy of Social Science, HuJian, Director of the Center for Soft Power Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Wang Dan, Deputy Director of the General Research Division of the Development Research Center of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, Xu Shirong, Deputy Director of the Policy Research Office of Zhejiang University of Technology, Wang Youjun, Professor of the School of Philosophy, Law, and Political Science of Shanghai Normal University, Yan Lijun, Deputy Secretary General of the Karamay Municipal Government and Director of the Investment Promotion Bureau, He Yang, Director of the Office of Economy, Research Center of Social and Economic Development of Karamay, and entrepreneurs from Shanghai made speeches on related topics.

(By Xiang Jinmei)