(Pictured) Zanele Ledwaba, the Chief of Staff in the office of the mayor shares a moment with the leader of the Chinese Hefei municipal Government Delegation, Kong Xiangyang on Friday, 7 December following a successful bilateral meeting in which the two cities sought to forge cordial relations that will result in the long term partnership. During this bilateral meeting, there was an exchange of information including an appreciation of similarities between the two cities in the area of manufacturing.

The Ekurhuleni delegation is set to draw valuable lessons and good practices from the Hefei municipality to learn how the Chinese City achieved low unemployment rate of three percent. The Ekurhuleni Municipality is further positioning itself as a digital city and will learn more from Hefei as an established digital City and the China’s leader in the manufacturing of home electronics. The Hefei Municipality is also China’s second leader in the manufacture of cars with the Gross Domestic Product of R420 billion. More importantly, the Ekurhuleni delegation is seriously looking at the Hefei’s recruitment strategy of setting up a municipal examination prior to being accepted in the workforce of the municipality. In this regard, the diplomatic relations between the two cities will see several exchange visits in order to maintain mutual beneficial relationship.