FRANKFURT, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Subnational cooperation between China and Germany plays a vital role in turning shared challenges into practical partnerships, said the leader of Germany's top development agency in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Thorsten Schaefer-Guembel, chair of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, said that while cities often bear the brunt of global challenges, they also serve as the primary incubators of innovative solutions, particularly in the face of climate change, health emergencies like COVID-19, and the ongoing digital transition.
Collaborations between German and Chinese cities are particularly important, Schaefer-Guembel said, given China's growing role and impact in global urbanization and climate action.
GIZ has been supporting Sino-German cooperation in China on behalf of the German Federal Government for over 40 years.
Dialogue has played a key role in GIZ's work with China, Schaefer-Guembel stressed, and will continue to be pivotal for future cooperation between Germany and China - despite political differences.
One example of this work is the Sino-German Mayors Program, one of the pillars of cooperation between the two countries. Its latest edition, "the 11th Sino-German Mayors Roundtable", took place in Regensburg in April this year.
GIZ has also hosted initiatives to foster city-level dialogue, such as the Sino-German City Summit held in Frankfurt in mid-June, which brought together more than 130 representatives from Chinese and German cities. The event facilitated discussions on climate resilience and digital transformation, and helped to develop new cooperation models based on trust and practical implementation.
These initiatives all have the same goal: to empower cities as agents of transformation, Schaefer-Guembel said. "City partnerships must respond to real needs and shared priorities," and partnerships will then become "a powerful building block for resilient international relations," he added.
With over 100 city and provincial partnerships between Germany and China, Schaefer-Guembel said that "the key is to move beyond symbolic exchanges and focus on real urban priorities that matter."
"What makes city cooperation so effective," he explained, "is its ability to foster peer-to-peer dialogue. When local leaders sit down to directly exchange ideas on real-world issues like sustainable transport or smart energy systems, that's when learning becomes truly meaningful."
The agency started working in China in the 1980s, allowing the two nations to "maintain lines of communication and rely on trusted relationships even for difficult conversations."
GIZ's work in China is now based on a shared interest in tackling global challenges. Addressing the "triple planetary crisis" of climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss will remain a joint challenge for decades to come, said Schaefer-Guembel.
He also expressed concern that the shared commitment enshrined in the UN 2030 Agenda is coming under increasing pressure politically, financially, and ideologically.
There is an urgent need for international cooperation in driving the green transformation of industry, he said, adding: "Finding ways to accelerate the transition to net-zero industries - and making that process as inclusive as possible - is essential, not only for China and Germany, but for the world at large."
As two important economies and global actors, Schaefer-Guembel suggested, Germany and China must "look beyond bilateral engagement and explore new, innovative, and practical forms of cooperation - especially with and for the least developed countries,". This could take the form of triangular cooperation, he said.
However, he warned that global cooperation cannot be taken for granted. "If we want to safeguard the foundations of global collaboration, we need to start shaping the future now," he stressed. ■
