Source: CCTV.com

11-28-2006 11:11

This was my first trip to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwest China and my job was to report the 2006 EU-China Partenariat.

For many people, Partenariat is a strange word that even cannot be found in an ordinary English dictionary. While doing the research, I know Partenariat is a European Commission initiative. It was introduced in 1988 to help small and medium sized companies find business partners in overseas markets. In 1997, the Partenariat was introduced to Asia under the Asia-Invest Program of the European Commission. And the event is now recognized throughout the world as one of the fastest and most cost effective ways of forging overseas business links.

The 2006 EU-China partenariat was the first time that such an event was hosted by a non-capital city in Asia. Why was Chengdu selected? I was curious to know the charm of Chengdu.

When we arrived at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, it was already 23:30. Time for sleep. But for volunteers recruited for the Partenariat, it was still working time. Smiles on faces of young and enthusiastic volunteers made us feel at home. A news officer of the committee was waiting for us and with her help, we reached the hotel very soon. Chengdu is a hospitable host.

The next day on November 8, that was one day before the Partenariat, we went to visit a medium-sized enterprise, Baijia Food Company. It is an agricultural product processing company. We wanted to get some shots of the processing of instant sweet potato noodles and their expectation for the Partenariat. The company was very cooperative and everything just went on smoothly.

But at night, I still couldn’t help being nervous about tomorrow’s job. My colleague and I were supposed to finish a piece of news, an interview with EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson tomorrow and a feature for World Insight when back to Beijing.