Dubai, Shanghai discuss ways to boost ties

This came in a meeting on Monday at Dubai Municipality headquarters attended by Hussain Nasser Lootah, Acting Director General of Dubai Municipality, and Han Zheng, Mayor of Shanghai, who led a 14-member delegation consisting of senior Shanghai municipal officials and prominent CEOs from the city.

Mr. Lootah while receiving the delegation praised the Chinese people and their government for the outstanding success of Olympics 2008 and noted that this shows the exemplary technical and administrative skills of the Chinese people.

He briefed the Shanghai delegation on Dubai Municipality's major tasks such as urban planning, supervision of building and construction activities in the city, undertaking landscaping and city beautification projects, environment conservation, providing adequate drainage and irrigation network, overseeing public health and safety, and food control, among other things.

"One of our recent accomplishments is in the field of e-Governance as we have transferred more than 90% of civic services to e-Services and we are aiming for zero visits of the customers to the municipal offices, which we hope will be accomplished very soon," Lootah said.

The Shanghai Mayor thanked Dubai Municipality for hosting the delegation and noted that his city is very much interested in further expanding the existing ties with Dubai in all fields, with particular focus on trade.

He invited Dubai Municipality officials to visit the Shanghai World Exposition 2010 which will be held from 1 May until 31 October 2010 in the Chinese city focusing on the theme "Better City, Better Life."

The exhibition, which will be attended by more than 200 nations and international organisations, is expected to attract 70 million visitors from home and abroad.

It is worth mentioning that the twinning agreement, signed by Dubai and Shanghai, seeks to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two cities in various fields and exchange expertise to improve civic work.

The agreement includes various clauses that aim at reinforcing the cooperation between the two cities and exchanging expertise in economic and commercial fields.

It also seeks to boost cultural exchange by promoting various arts of both countries and consolidate cooperation of youth in the fields of sports and other youth activities.