Arabianranta and the School of Arts, Design and Architecture impress Shanghai city leaders
28.08.2013
Espoo and Shanghai's 15-year sister city relationship brought the Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong to Finland. During his visit, he also visited Arabianranta, where the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture is located.
Mayor Yang was very interested in the Arabianranta concept and the so-called five-star strategy it is based upon. Dean Helena Hyvönen and Professor Yrjö Sotamaa from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture presented the strategy to Mayor Yang and described the links between the university and the community.
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‘Mayor Yang asked the officials to go into the strategic concept in depth. This provides a very interesting opportunity for starting macro-level research cooperation’, says Yrjö Sotamaa.
The visit to Finland highlighted the cooperation in science and technology between the sister cities and Aalto University's key role in developing the partnership. At the Hanasaari seminar, held in celebration of the 15th anniversary of signing the sister city agreement, the Minister of Education Krista Kiuru and several other speakers highlighted the activities of the Aalto and Tongji University's joint Sino-Finnish Centre in the cooperation between the cities and the two countries.
In his speech, City of Espoo Mayor Jukka Mäkelä set out a target cooperation strategy that would include Aalto University and Espoo, Tongji University and Shanghai as well as Stanford University and Palo Alto.
‘Ambitious targets are an excellent starting point for the development of cooperation’, says Yrjö Sotamaa in support of the mayor's speech.