«Kazan at the Crossroads of Two Great Cultures: Results of the Second «SPROUTS» Forum in Kazan!»
2024-11-15 22:00
The second largest international forum SPROUTS - “Russia-China: Mutually Beneficial Cooperation” was held on November 14-15, 2024 in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan.
The SPROUTS Forum is a new annual platform for the development of economic cooperation between Russian regions and Chinese provinces. This year's event gathered a record number of participants – more than 10,000 representatives from 36 countries, including delegations from 71 regions of Russia and 27 administrative units of the People's Republic of China. Among the participants there were delegations from such administrative units as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hong Kong, Beijing, Anhui, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Liaoning, Sichuan, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Hebei, Henan, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Jilin, Jiangsu, Yunnan, Zhejiang, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Fujian, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Chongqing, Tianjin and Shanghai.
Within the framework of the II International Forum SPROUTS, 77 business sessions were held and B2B meetings between Chinese and Russian organizations were organized. The forum participants were able to get acquainted with a rich tour program, during which they visited key facilities in the spheres of education, IT-innovation and industry of Tatarstan. In addition, the forum offered participants a variety of cultural events, including workshops, concerts and theater performances. An important part of the program were sporting events, such as a hockey match and a tennis tournament, which helped to strengthen friendly ties and exchange experience between the participants.
A special event of the business program was the plenary session “Russia and China in the global economic game”, which was attended by representatives of federal ministries, heads of Chinese provincial governments, chairmen of Chinese companies, as well as heads of Russian regions.
Three exhibitions with a total area of 15,000 sq.m. were organized in the Kazan Expo IEC. Alongside with the Forum Pavilion A1 hosted the Coffee Tea Cacao Kazan Expo exhibition, while Pavilion A2 hosted the Russia China Expo and the REBUS profile exhibition, featuring 49 exhibitors and 98 co-exhibitors from 8 regions of Russia and 9 provinces of China. The central cross-culture zone in the pavilion became an important platform for exchange between the cultures and mentalities of the two countries.
More than 30 agreements were also signed at the forum, some of them:
- Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan and Public Joint Stock Company BANK URALSIB;
- Agreement on cooperation in the field of agriculture
between the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan;
- Agreements of intentions to develop and establish twin-city relations between the city of Dazhou, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China, and the city of Elabuga, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation;
- Memorandum of strategic cooperation between TATLIFT LLC jointly with Shanghai HaXell Elevator Co., Ltd.
Thus, the Second Russia-China International Forum was an important step towards strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and China, demonstrating the importance of cultural and economic exchange between the two countries. The participation of more than 10 thousand representatives from Russia and China testifies to the growing interest in partnership and joint projects. The SPROUTS Forum not only confirmed its role as an important platform for dialog, but also became a symbol of aspiration for joint progress and sustainable development in modern realities.