REPORT FROM THE VISIT FROM DALARNA IN HUBEI. October 2015

Transcription

1 REPORT FROM THE VISIT FROM DALARNA IN HUBEI October 2015

2 Report from the visit to the Hubei province in October 2015 Date: the 8 rd 11 th of October 2015 Place: the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China Participants from Sweden: Management and coordination project: Mr Leif Nilsson (s), President of Region Dalarna Ms Sofia Jarl (c), Vice President of Region Dalarna Ms Linnéa Hassis, Youth Strategist of Region Dalarna (replacement for Ms Tiina Ohlson, Director General) Ms Åsa Ängsback, International Strategist of Region Dalarna and Coordinator Youth VIP-project: Ms Jing Qiu, Project Leader Ms Melinda Tjulander Ms Julia Hansson Ms. Sofie Svensson Mr Oscar Sjökvist Mr Anton Svensson Young Power initiative: Ms Lovisa Sundström Ms Anna Enblom Participants from China: Management and coordination project: Mr Zhang Shu, Deputy President of Hubei Youth Federation Mr Zheng Lihui, General Secretariat of Hubei Youth Federation Ms Li Hua, Division Director of Foreign Affairs Bureau of Hubei Provincial Government Mr Zhou Zhou, Sweden Relation Supervisor of Foreign Affairs Bureau of Hubei Provincial Government, Coordinator Youth VIP-project: Mr Zhou Zhou, Sweden Relation Supervisor of Foreign Affairs Bureau of Hubei Provincial Government, Coordinator Ms Zhang Ying, Coordinator Hubei Youth Federation Ms Huang Lin Ms Yang Minjie Ms Li Geng Mr Luo Daojun Mr Zhou Yujin Mr Yuan Ye 1

3 2(14) Introduction Dalarna in Sweden and Hubei in China cooperate since November The partnership originates from the town twinning between Borlänge and Wuhan, which began in the early 2000s with projects related to the environment protection and sustainable development. Nowadays the cooperation covers several areas within the responsibilities of the municipalities. For example, within elderly care, education, public health and business development. Since 2013 Region Dalarna and Hubei Provincial Peoples Government run two projects in order to deepen and develop the mutual exchanges between the provinces; A management and coordination project and a youth project with financing from the ICLD, the International Center for Local Democracy. This is a report from the fourth and final visit within these two projects when a delegation of 12 people from Dalarna travelled to Wuhan city in Hubei province in October Four from the steering group and eight from the Youth VIP project. The program included study visits, meetings, a joint public event and a youth seminar.

4 3(14) Program Wednesday the 7 th of October 2015 Departure from Dalarna and Stockholm to Beijing Thursday the 8 th of October 2015 Arrival to Wuhan in the afternoon. Welcome dinner with Hubei Youth Federation After settled into their hotel room for the week, the young participants met with a group of students from Wuhan University, the coordinator and the section chief at the Youth Federation. Together they summarized last year s activities and events, and the coordinator from Youth Federation briefed the program of the joint-event that will take place at Wuhan University. The whole group then enjoyed the dinner together. After the dinner, they took a walk around the university campus and visited parts of the city together. Meeting with the Governor of Hubei Province The Governor of Hubei Province Mr Wang Guosheng and the Deputy Governor Mr Gan Rongkun held a meeting to welcome the Region Dalarna delegation led by the President of the Region Dalarna board, Mr Leif Nilsson. Mr Wang Guosheng, on behalf of the provincial government, expressed his warm welcome to Mr Leif Nilsson and the Swedish Delegation. Then he briefly introduced the social and economic development of Hubei province in Despite the slow-down in economic development of the whole China, Hubei has kept quite rapid development in the past 9 months with a GDP increase rate of 8,7%, ranked no. 6 in China. Mr Wang Guosheng pointed out that Dalarna and Hubei has achieved good results in promoting youth exchanges through the Youth VIP-project and this has laid a solid foundation for cooperation in other areas. Dalarnas steel, forestry and tourism industry is of great strength and have also good experiences within environment protection and sustainable development which would have a good match with Hubei. Hubei will always welcome investments from Dalarna and Sweden. The Chinese national development strategies The silk road economic belt and the 21 st century maritime silk road (the belt and the road) is promoting international economic cooperation. Hubei is also in the Yangtze River economic belt and is acceleration its opening-up, which will provide more opportunities for both sides. Mr Leif Nilsson said that as an important province in central China, Hubei has strong strength in industry, agriculture, science, education and other aspects. People have witnessed the rapid development of Hubei in recent years, and Wuhan City is different everyday. Region Dalarna is willing to strengthen cooperation and exchange with Hubei Province in different areas. The political board of Region Dalarna has also adopted an agenda for growth and innovation in order to attract skills, companies and investments to Dalarna. In this

5 4(14) agenda Region Dalarna has prioritized four knowledge areas: Advanced industryinnovations mainly in the steel industry, Innovative experience production- innovation mainly within travel and tourism but also to the gaming industry, Energy efficient societyinnovations in energy efficiency and Health Care- innovation for health. Also, Dalarna has the Swedalar Representation Office located in Wuhan that can help small and medium sized companies to get in touch with potential partners for cooperation in the Hubei province and also support ongoing projects between the municipalities and regions. Friday the 9 th of October 2015 Experience the school life with students from Hubei The young participants spent the morning taking part in an English literature lection together with the Chinese students at Wuhan University. They listened to the lecture and also took part in the class discussion. They also enjoyed lunch together with the Chinese participants and students at the university s canteen. The participants from Dalarna have long been interested in the Chinese language. In the afternoon, they had a lesson in basic Chinese, where they learned how to say some basic words and expressions that are commonly used in Chinese. After the lesson, they took a walk around the campus and visit the

6 5(14) students dormitory. In most Chinese schools and university, a dormitory room is usually shared by 4 to 6 students, and the dormitory complex usually consists of tall buildings with many rooms along its corridors. This differs very much from the housing condition for students in Dalarna. Many participants expressed their surprise at the visit, and think it was interesting to have the opportunity to see the different aspects of student life in China. The dinner for today is also prepared by the participants. Under the help and guidance of the canteen personnel, they tried making dumplings and steam bums on their own. The steering group also joined them, and together the group had dinner at the university canteen. Hubei Provincial Women Federation On the morning the steering group visited the Hubei Provincial Women Federation. The Vice Chairman of Hubei Provincial Women s Federation, Ms Gao Qin, held the meeting. The two sides had comprehensive discussion regarding women s right protection, women s involvement in politics and social affair management. Firstly, Ms Gao Qin on behalf of Hubei Provincial Women Federation warmly welcome the visit of the Swedish Delegation, then introduced in detail the women s right protection situation in Hubei Province, as well as the women s involvement in politics and social affair management. The gender equality in China is greatly changed and keeps improving. The law against family violence is under development and the leadership of Hubei province pay great attention to gender equality and women s right protection. Lots of work has been done via the Women s Federation, like women s employment, women s participation in the legislative and decision-making, women and children welfare services, awareness raising, children caring etc. Afterwards, Ms Liu Xiaohong, professor of Huazhong Normal University and also member of the Standing Committee of the Hubei Provincial Women s Federation gave an introduction to her work on rural area women issues, especially the women s involvement in the village level social affair management and left-behind women and children caring. She mentioned some of the measures taken to support women and families: hotlines that women can phone if they are threatened, a website where they can make a complaint, courses in self-defence for young women, advisors and networks that can help people with alcohol problems, action plans and projects against domestic violence, social networks for

7 6(14) women and public activities to get more women engaged, and actions to get more female civil servants and leaders. She noted that much have been better but there are still much to do. The Swedish side highly appreciated the positive measures taken in Hubei to promote gender equality, safeguard the rights and interests of women and children which achieved excellent results. And Ms Sofia Jarl, vice president of Region Dalarna introduced a number of initiatives in Sweden to promote gender equality. For example, in Sweden the parents will share 480 days of paid maternity leave, and there are many policies to encourage fathers to take leave for their family affairs. Women are encouraged to engage in the political parties to increase their influence, Sweden has a law against the purchasing of sex (where people buying sex are punished, but not those who are selling sex), special shelters for women and children that are threatened by domestic violence, measures to promote female entrepreneurship etc. Mr Leif Nilsson said that although the Swedish gender equality in the country is well developed, still there is room for improvement, like to keep the growing of proportion of women in politics, the percentage of female senior managers in companies etc. The two sides also discussed household division of labor, the proportion of university girl students (60% in Sweden), youth development strategy and other issues for in-depth exchanges. And the Swedish delegation visited the women and children affair incubators under the Provincial Women s Federation before the discussion started. Environmental protection department Next meeting was held by Mr Li Ruiqin, Deputy Director of the Hubei Provincial Environmental Protection Department (EPD). Officials from International Technical Cooperation Department, Pollution Prevention and Treatment Department, Environmental Monitoring Department and Provincial Research institute of Environmental Sciences under the EPD. Firstly the Chinese side introduced the general environment protection situation in Hubei Province. Hubei is a province with lots of lakes and rivers and at the same time the Danjiangkou Reservoir is the water source for the Transfer Water from Southern to Northern China Project, so the water pollution prevention and treatment is of great importance for Hubei. Meanwhile the air pollution, especially the PM-problem is critical in Hubei. The fast development posed the challenge to keep the balance of environment and social/economy development. Sweden is taking the leading in the world when it comes to environmental protection and Hubei is willing to learn more experience from Dalarna. Compared to Wuhan, the industries in Dalarna are smaller and the environ-mental impact is not that critical now. Sweden has thanks to legislation, taxes and innovations succeeded in reducing emissions in industry. However, now it is time to reduce the micro plastics in the environment.

8 7(14) The Swedish side introduced in details the solid waste management that has good environmental control procedures (especially for dioxin) and the nearest resident community is only 300 meters away because it does not smell anymore. In China the not in my backyard attitude towards solid waste incineration project is quite common. The recycling is the most effective way to reduce the waste quantity, e.g. the paper will be reused seven times in Dalarna before it finally becomes waste. And the waste is also well assorted and utilized, the food waste is used to produce biogas which is upgraded and used as vehicle fuel. It must be possible to combine economic development with good environment. The Chinese side introduced the three general ways for solid waste treatment in Hubei, i.e. landfill, incineration and synergy treatment with cement production. But for the incineration there is a big gap compared to Sweden, especially the waste assorting. The Provincial Research Institute of Environmental Sciences put forward three areas that they are interested in: 1. For the waste water treatment in paper-making and pharmacy-industries 2. For the rural area scattered household waste collection and treatment 3. For the environmental legislation Both sides agreed to keep close contact for further cooperation, after the meeting. Mr Xu Min, Swedalar Office, and Hubei FAO introduced to EPD al little bit about the Technical Visit offer in Sweden and Dalarna.

9 8(14) Steering group meeting: On the afternoon the steering group from Dalarna and Hubei held a meeting to discuss the new project (Youth VIP Phase II)- application. Participants: Mr Leif Nilsson, Ms Sofia Jarl, Ms Linnéa Hassis, Ms Qiu Jing and Ms Åsa Ängsback from Region Dalarna and Ms Li Hua and Zhou Joe Zhou from the Hubei Foreign Affairs Office and Mr Zheng Lihui from the Hubei Youth Federation. Firstly, Ms Åsa Ängsback and Ms Qiu Jing gave a short review of the activities in the past year and what has been achieved so far. 1. The Youth Exchange and steering group meeting in Dalarna in May Two workshops/seminars after the May exchange, in August and September 2015 where the youth participants discussed the plan for the coming exchange and joint arrangement I Hubei in October. 3. Youth VIP and what we have achieved so far: - Increased knowledge on possibilities to influence and participate (measured by participant surveys) - Four exchanges and four joint events - Direct discussion/meeting with decision-makers and young people 4. Experience form Youth VIP1 - Important to inform youth of their possibilities to influence and participate - Important to exchange experiences and ideas - Important to involve young people in the planning process - Ongoing dialogues between decision makers and young people 5. The management and Coordination project where the steering group of Dalarna and Hubei has met six times, three in Hubei and three in Dalarna. They have attended all four joint arrangements organized by the Youth VIP project and received information and knowledge about the results of the annual participant surveys. The steering group has also examined and discussed new potential areas of project cooperation, for example within the field of entrepreneurship, sustainable development, tourism and travel industry and expanded cooperation on local level among municipalities in Dalarna and Hubei and possibilities for student exchanges. Secondly, Ms Qiu and Ms Ängsback introduced the thoughts of future cooperation between Dalarna and Hubei as the two ongoing projects will come to an end the 22 nd of February In May 2015 the steering group agreed to apply for two new projects within the ICLDpartnership programs in order to take a next step in the process of increasing the youth perspectives in regional development; a Youth VIP II-project and also a Management and

10 9(14) Coordination II-project. A letter of intent was signed and we headed for the next call, the 15 th of October However, Ms Qiu, Ms Ängsback and Mr Zhou Zhou realized that we had to attend a training about the project logics, the Logical Framework Approach, in order to get the right tools for writing a successful application according to the following requirements and criteria s of the ICLD; Focus on results related to changes on institutional level in municipalities and regions Focus on at least one of four cornerstones Focus on SIDA:s three perspectives Focus on UN Sustainable development goals no 16 and 17, inclusive society and sustainability ICLD: focus 2016: Citizen Dialogue. The steering committee approved the suggestion to post pone the application procedure and gave the coordinators the task of preparing project applications to the call for proposals on March instead of the 15th of October Qiu Jing presented the main idea about the: YOUTH VOICES FOR INFLUENCE AND PARTICIPATION II DALARNA HUBEI PROJECT Project goal: Dalarna and Hubei involve youth in the regional development Intermediate goals: Youth coordinators are supported by local politicians Officials/technical staff include a youth perspective in their planning processes Politicians include a youth perspective in their decision making processes Strategy: Exchange experiences from methods used in Dalarna and Hubei province to improve the dialogue between officials, technical staff, politicians and the youth. So, the project activities in the Youth VIP II will be more emphasized on management rather than student exchanges and the dialogue between the youth and the politicians a key factor. The Chinese side showed willingness for further cooperation and interest in the new project. The Youth federation has a network of youth counselors that work in schools and universities. They will be the right target group for this project if the application is approved. Hubei Youth Federation also invite representatives of young people to meetings with the politicians from the Hubei Provincial Government. These meetings serve as a platform for politicians to meet and take in youth perspectives in policy making. This existing structure will be the common ground for the new project, because at Region Dalarna, we also work closely with our network of youth counselors. We feel strongly that we have found a common target group in both regions that match well with each other.

11 10(14) Åsa Ängsback presented the main idea about the: MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION II DALARNA HUBEI PROJECT This project is compulsory if we want to run other projects within the ICLD partnership program. Four representatives from each region. Two visits per year, one in Dalarna and one in Hubei. To lead and anchor ICLD projects in each region and promote further cooperation in new areas. Ms Linnéa Hassis, the youth strategist of Region Dalarna gave a short introduction about how the Youth-perspective get political support in Dalarna through the Dala-strategy. The Region Dalarna board with representatives from all 15 municipalities in Dalarna and the County Council has adopted a strategy to become Sweden s best region for young people. They realize that young people is crucial for the growth and development of Dalarna. This was presented more in detail during the joint event next day on the Wuhan University. After the meeting the steering group went to Wuhan University and joined the Youth VIPparticipants for DIY dinner and tried to make Chinese dumplings. Saturday the 10 th of October 2016 Joint event On the 10th of October 2015, the steering group spent a whole day in Wuhan University to join the youth exchange activities. In the morning Ms Linnea Hassis, the youth strategist of Region Dalarna introduced to the Chinese students the youth strategy of Dalarna: Dalarna, the First Youth Region of Sweden. The idea behind the strategy is to attract more young people to stay in Dalarna or move back to Dalarna. In order to develop the region in a sustainable way, we need young people s enthusiasm, innovation and ideas. It is believed that if the youth feel that they can influence and participate in matters of their concern they get a positive picture of their adolescence in Dalarna and hopefully choose to stay or come back! The youth strategy will now be implemented in Dalarna in order to include a youth perspective on regional development. Ms Hassis described the DIMPA-process that involves the responsible officials and politicians and the importance of a long term cross sectoral youth policy. A Letter of intent describes how the 15 Municipalities in Dalarna shall work and follow up the process. The LUPP (Local follow-up of youth policy)-survey about youth health and opinions is one example of how they work knowledge based and Ms Hassis gave examples of what types of questions that are included in the questionnaires. Ms Sofia Jarl shared experiences from how Gagnef municipality in Dalarna used LUPP-results for their development of the schools.

12 11(14) Ms Hassis hopes that Dalarna can inspire Hubei to become the best Youth region of China. After Ms Linnéa Hassis introduction, the steering group attended a workshop about sustainable city planning where the Swedish Youth VIP-participants Anton and Lovisa Sundström introduced the symbio city game about city planning which can be found here: Be a mayor for a day : Then the Swedish Youth VIPparticipants Melinda, Julia and Sophie gave a lesson in the Swedish language and taught their Chinese friends basic Swedish words, for instance how to say hello (hej!), bye-bye (hej då!) and thanks (tack!) in Swedish language. Both sides students had lots of fun and learned quite a lot. In the activities break, the steering group visited the campus of Wuhan University, led by the Chinese students. In the afternoon, the Youth VIPparticipants held a seminar regarding Gender Equality. They discussed things like gender marked jobs, standards or norms for what constitutes men and women, different upbringing of boys and girls etc. and also attitudes towards homosexuality and how these are changing. In the end of the discussion, the steering group gave their comments and reflections with emphasis on the importance of human equality. The session made the young students get to know each other s culture better, the differences and the similar things. And the friendship set up between the young students will be foundation for further development of the friendship between the two provinces.

13 12(14) Sunday the 11 th of October 2016 Youth VIP Conclusion meeting On the morning of the 11th October 2015 the whole Swedish delegation visited the Hubei Youth Federation and held the Youth VIP conclusion meeting. The first 1,5 hours of the meeting was an internal conclusion meeting for Youth VIP-project participants and the project manager. During the 1,5 hours, the participants discussed the following questions together and with the project manager: Thoughts and experience with the project. What do you like most about the project? Do you feel that you have increased your knowledge and areas that you d like to influence? What do you think of meeting with the decision-makers face to face? What would you like to say to your fellow project participants? All participants expressed positive feedbacks for the project. They feel they have increased their knowledge and also broadened their perspective. They have also become interested in areas that they didn t know or formerly were not especially interested in, for example, gender equality and sustainable urban planning. They have also made suggestions regarding how to increase youths influence and participation in regional development: Inform young people of what and how to take part and influence Involve young people already in the planning process It is important to keep an ongoing dialogue between the young people and the politicians. After the internal meeting, the steering group joined the meeting. Participants from Hubei s side: Mr Zhang Shu, Deputy Secretary of Communist Youth League of Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Deputy President of Hubei Youth Federation Mrs Li Hua Deputy Director of European and African Affairs Division in Foreign Affairs Office of Hubei Provincial People s Government, Mr Zhang Yi, Vice Secretary General of Hubei Youth Federation Mr Zhou Zhou, Section Chief of European and African Affairs Division in Foreign Affairs Office of Hubei Provincial People s Government Ms Zhang Ying and Ms Zhang Yuan, Staff of the Secretariat of Hubei Youth Federation

14 13(14) Both sides agreed that the implementation of the Youth VIP project is of great importance for the friendship development of the two provinces and willing to cooperate on the Youth VIP Phase II project application. The Chinese side think that it is very important to take the youth perspective into consideration when making policies and put forward three specific suggestions: 1. For the Phase II project application, management staff should be more involved in. The Youth Federation will set up a team dedicated to the project to ensure better coordination and continuity in the project. 2. We should set up more routine and fixed communication mechanism between the two provinces 3. More communication needed for young entrepreneurs/company leaders. We could, for example, set up forum for Sino-Swedish young enterprises leaders and promote match-making of companies. The Swedish side emphasized the importance of youth to the development of Region Dalarna and willingness to cooperate with Hubei to expand range of the youth exchange. Visit to the Wuhan International Garden Expo On the afternoon the 11th of October 2015 the whole Swedish delegation visited the 10th China (Wuhan) International Garden Expo and got a better understanding of the Chinese culture, especially in the construction field. The Wuhan International Garden Expo Park was built on a site which used to be a landfill. The Expo started since 25th of September 2015 and will last until the end of May There are 117 different gardens in total in the park, including parks of ten foreign countries; Sweden, France, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Brazil, Kenya, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. The delegation visited the foreign country garden as well as the Changsha garden and the Hangzhou garden.

15 14(14) Monday the 12th of October Visit to the Swedish Embassy in Beijing, The Swedish delegation met Ms Gabriella Augustsson, head of section for press and communication and were given an overview of current issues and activities at the Embassy. We also got the opportunity to present Region Dalarna, the sister province partnership between Dalarna and Hubei province and the youth shared their experiences from the youth exchanges within the ICLD-financed Youth VIP-project. We also discussed the process of visa applications for our Chinese friends in the various ICLD projects Dalarna and Borlänge leads. This report is written by: Xu Min, Swedalar Office in Wuhan, Jing Qiu and Åsa Ängsback, Region Dalarna