Modi-Xi meet gave boost to Wuhan

Wuhan (China): The resounding success of the informal summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Wuhan in April this year has prompted this bustling central Chinese industrial city to intensify its links with Indian business and student communities. Wuhan— Capital of China’s Hubei province —is now pulling out all stops to woo Indian business investment and students to cash in on its now-famous link with India.

“The informal summit and its success is now a golden opportunity for strengthening links between Wuhan city and India,” Duan Xiaoming, Director of the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Wuhan Municipal Government told this newspaper. Wuhan city — perched on the historic Yangtze river — is the latest showpiece of the Chinese economic marvel and is already hailed as the automobile Capital of China. It is also one of the main centres of China’s Optical Fibre industry and Pharma sectors. But it has one more title that is increasingly assuming more significance — that of being China’s Student Capital. Wuhan is now home to a whopping 1.3 million students---an overwhelming majority Chinese but also steadily attracting more Indian students — with its famous engineering and technical universities that are producing some of China’s finest brains.

Zhai Yufeng, Vice-director of Wuhan Investment Promotion Bureau beams with pride as he told this newspaper that already at least seven Indian companies have made significant trade investments in his city. But it isn’t a one-way street. Chinese companies based in Wuhan are now eyeing the Indian market and several of them have already made huge investments in India.

Another Chinese official, Deputy Director of the Wuhan Municipal Government’s Foreign Office Yu Feng also proudly recounted PM Modi’s visit to the city, with city functionaries particularly talking about PM Modi’s visit to the Wuhan Museum that contains evidence of the ancient civilisational links between the two countries. PM Modi was extremely impressed by the development of the city, Wuhan's city government officials said. It’s a relationship the city hopes to nurture.