The Green Building Seminar of the 11th Regional Leaders’ Summit, co-hosted by Shandong provincial foreign affairs office and provincial housing and urban-rural development department, was held online on Dec. 7. The event was attended by Cai Xianjin, head of the Foreign Affairs Office of Shandong Provincial People’s Government and president of Shandong People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Zhang Xiaomei, deputy director-general of Shandong Provincial Housing and Urban-rural Development Department, Sun Deshan, president of Shandong Guoshun Construction Group Co. Ltd., and representatives of construction departments and experts from Upper Austria of Austria, Bavaria of Germany, Western Cape of South Africa and Quebec of Canada. The event was presided over by Li Yongsen, vice director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Shandong Provincial People’s Government.

Cai Xinjin briefed Shandong’s sister provinces and states on the latest economic and social development of Shandong province. “As the host of the 11th Regional Leaders’ Summit in 2023, Shandong will take the series of pre-summit activities as an opportunity to promote exchanges and cooperation among its sister provinces and states in various fields around the theme of “green development”, and build a green platform for friendly cooperation among sister provinces and states.” said Cai Xianjin.

At the seminar, the sister provinces and states jointly initiated and launched the "Green Building Beacon Action Plan", which aims to promote the development of green building demonstration projects that lead the regions. Meanwhile, through analyzing and summarizing the experience gained from the projects between November 2022 and October 2023, the provinces and states will submit to the 11th Regional Leaders Summit proposals on green building development and cooperation that meet the characteristics of the provinces and states, so as to provide reference for the leaders of the sister provinces and states to make decisions, and promote exchanges and cooperation in the fields of green building, energy conservation and emission reduction.

Established in 2002, the Regional Leaders' Summit consists of seven members, namely Shandong Province, Bavaria of Germany, Upper Austria of Austria, Quebec of Canada, Western Cape of South Africa, Georgia of the United States of America and Sao Paulo of Brazil. The summit is held by provinces and states every two years in turn. Currently, more than 300 bilateral and multilateral cooperation projects have been reached under the mechanism.