Exchange and Cooperation with Tangshan in China

"TangMa Training Project for Cities of Tomorrow"

The City of Malmö, together with VA SYD and Sysav, and Tangshan have joined partnership in sustainable urban development.

Malmö and the City of Tangshan in northeast China are sister cities since the 1980s. When visiting Malmö in 2008, the Tangshan delegation and the City of Malmö agreed to expand the cooperation to include sustainable urban development.

Malmö and Tangshan Have Joined Unique Partnership in Sustainable Urban Development

In 2009 the City of Malmö began the actual cooperation by starting a project supported by ICLD (the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy). The same year ICLD assigned a planning contribution to enable the cities to define their project. The result of the pilot study is a project called "TangMa Training Project for Cities of Tomorrow".

Letter of Endorsement Signed

At an exclusive ceremony in Shanghai on 31 May 2010 the mayors of the two sister cities signed a Letter of Endorsement to confirm their mutual political support of the project, and to emphasize their resolution to realise it according to plan. 

Areas of Cooperation

For both Tangshan and Malmö, the developing of practical solutions for the sustainable city has very high priority. The City of Malmö is further developing the experiences gained from the residential area Western Harbour in Malmö.

The City of Tangshan is constructing the "International Eco-City" Caofeidian, next to a large planned industrial centre with a deepwater harbour. When completed Caofeidian will have between 500,000 and 800,000 inhabitants. Tangshan has set aside a special Malmö-inspired district in Caofeidian. Today the rate of investment in the Caofeidian project is roughly 20 million SEK per day.

After a meeting in December 2009, two areas in this first phase were pointed out as being of particular interest: "Sustainable Urban Design" (SUD)  and "Organic Waste as a Resource for Urban Renewable Energy" (OWRE). In OWRE, VA SYD and Sysav are acting as the Swedish main participants.