Copenhagen to co-host 2018 Design Week

Event will showcase products from creative firms, help boost exports and attract more Chinese visitors

Copenhagen was selected to co-host Beijing Design Week 2018, which will put Danish design on display before a large international audience.

"I am certain that this will benefit Copenhagen's creative firms, help boost exports and attract more Chinese visitors to Denmark," Frank Jensen, lord mayor of the Danish capital city, said at the First China Denmark Regions and Cities Forum in Beijing on Dec 6.

Beijing Design Week is China's leading design festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Beijing Municipal Government. It has been held every year from late September to early October since 2011.

Previous co-hosts included London, Milan, Dubai, Amsterdam, Seoul and Barcelona. An estimated 5 million visitors come to Beijing Design Week every year.

Copenhagen will invite Danish organizations and companies in the design industry to be part of the co-hosting effort, Jensen said. Everything from artistic design and gastronomy to innovative urban planning and computer game programming, will be included.

Copenhagen will also have an exhibit in Beijing's 798 art district during Design Week 2018, as well as launching events throughout the Chinese capital, in the same way events are presented in Denmark.

"We intend to use Beijing Design Week 2018 as an opportunity to make design an even bigger part of our efforts to promote Copenhagen and encourage more people to visit here," says Mikkel Aaro-Hansen, managing director of Wonderful Copenhagen, the city's official tourism bureau.

Market analysis by the bureau found that design is an important motivation for Chinese travelers' decision to visit the city. About 80 percent of people from China who visit Copenhagen report being interested in buying Danish design products.

Jensen was among the Danish guests visiting Beijing and took part in the First China Denmark Regions and Cities Forum on Dec 5 and 6. The forum had about 400 attendees. Danish Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Gender Equality Karen Ellemann, together with Li Xiaolin, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, witnessed the signing of six cooperation agreements - on agriculture, wastewater treatment, dairy and organic farming, tourism and finance - between Chinese and Danish commercial and municipal partners.

"Both Denmark and China are trying to engage with more local-level governments to enhance the bilateral partnership," says A. Carsten Damsgaard, Denmark's ambassado to China. "During this two-day forum, the Danish competencies in sectors that are prioritized in the Chinese government's reform plans will be showcased and discussed by stakeholders."

Enhanced cooperation at the local political level is at the center of Sino-Danish bilateral relations. At the political level, a letter of intent was signed between the Harbin government in Heilongjiang province and the Royal Danish Embassy on deepening agricultural cooperation, along with a joint action plan between the Beijing Municipal Tourism Commission and Wonderful Copenhagen, to promote tourism.

In a memorandum of understanding between government and business, Zhaoqing city in Guangdong province joined hands with the Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos to equip two new hospitals with the latest wastewater treatment solutions.

Europe's leading milking operator and equipment manufacturer S.A.Christensen & Co inked two memorandums of understanding on dairy farms and organic farming with its local business partners in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Hebei province.

renjie@chinadaily.com.cn