To promote Chengdu’s high-quality development and continuously stimulate its dynamism of opening up, the Foreign Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Chengdu Municipality, in active collaboration with friendship cities across Oceania, including Australia’s Gold Coast and Melbourne and New Zealand’s Hamilton, has established a multi-layered, multidimensional platform for economic and trade cooperation through thematic matchmaking sessions, one-on-one business negotiations, industrial park visits, and other initiatives. Driven by a range of pragmatic measures, friendship city resources are being efficiently translated into tangible advantages for economic and trade collaboration. This ongoing effort is injecting a continuous stream of momentum into Chengdu’s opening up and high-quality development.

 

 

On February 18, 2025, a delegation from the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, located in Gold Coast of Australia, one of Chengdu’s friendship cities, visited Chengdu Olymvax Biopharmaceuticals Inc. Both sides formalized their collaboration with a signing ceremony for the Group A Streptococcal Vaccine (GAS Vaccine) Project Cooperation and the GAS Vaccine Contract Manufacturing Agreement. The vaccine has the potential to become the first effective vaccine for preventing GAS infections in the world.

 

In September 2025, a delegation of Melbourne’s biomedical enterprises (including Adjutor Healthcare Group, Nucleus Network, 360BioLabs, and Acclime) visited Chengdu Frontier Medical Center, Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-Town, and enterprises within the Bio-Town. The two cities jointly hosted a biomedical matchmaking session, where Melbourne-based biomedical enterprises engaged with representatives from local medical institutions, including the Clinical Trial Center of Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, Kanghong Pharmaceutical, Real and Best, and Hinova. Representatives from the City of Melbourne, Austrade Chengdu, Chengdu municipal bodies, Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-Town Administrative Committee, and other agencies attended the event.

 

Following the session, the delegation visited Cochlear Limited’s first overseas full-chain manufacturing base—Chengdu Hearing Hub. They watched the manufacturing line for cochlear implant products and gained deeper insights into the remarkable achievements of the “Australian Invention & Chinese Smart Manufacturing” cooperation model.

 

 

In April 2025, Bonnie Shao, Chief Representative of the Melbourne Office Tianjin, led a delegation of Melbourne’s outstanding architecture enterprises to visit Chengdu during the 2025 Chengdu International Friendship Cities Cooperation and Development Forum. They held discussions with Chengdu Design Consulting Group and Southwest Jiaotong University Chengdu Design Institute on cooperation on green building initiatives.

 

In September 2025, Nicholas Reece, Lord Mayor of Melbourne, led a government and business delegation to visit Chengdu. The delegation visited Luxelakes Eco-City, where they touredthe residential buildings designed by a Melbourne-based architectural practice and witnessed the seamless integration of Melbourne’s green building concepts with Chengdu’s development of the “park city” and low-carbon communities.

 

 

In May 2025, participating New Zealand representatives visited Tianfu New Area No. 1 Reclaimed Water Plant in Chengdu during the 3rd New Zealand-China Mayoral Forum. Representatives from multiple New Zealand cities studied Chengdu’s expertise in wastewater treatment and explored potential for future cooperation.

 

 

In September 2025, during the visit to Chengdu by the government and business delegation led by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, the two cities jointly hosted a green economy matchmaking session. The delegation of Melbourne’s green economy enterprises engaged with Chengdu Better City Investment Group, Chengdu Design Consulting Group, Sichuan Nato New Material Technology Co., Ltd., and other local enterprises. The session not only established a bridge for resource sharing and project matchmaking between Chengdu and Melbourne enterprises but also saw enterprises reach agreements on green technology R&D, low-carbon industry cooperation, and other areas.

 

During the visit to NING Space, CATL’s first offline experience center in the world, the delegation learned about the development of frontier power battery technology, future-oriented application scenarios, and Choco-Swap stations. After experiencing various types of new energy vehicles equipped with CATL’s batteries, they marveled at China’s achievements in green and low-carbon development.

 

 

In April 2025, a councilordelegation from Hamilton, New Zealand, visited JOUAV, where the members discussed with the company the potential of utilizing drones to monitor biodiversity in the Waikato River basin.

 

 

In May 2025, a councilor delegation from Hamilton, New Zealand, visited Aerofugia, where the members discussed the idea of utilizing low-altitude aircraft to facilitate the connectivity between Hamilton and Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.

 

From biomedicine to green buildings, and from low-carbon technology to the low-altitude economy, Chengdu’s cooperation with its friendship cities in Australia and New Zealand is steadily taking root, blossoming, and bearing fruit. Looking ahead, we anticipate even more cross-sector collaboration and shared success through innovation!

 

Edited by Zhang Yuanlin

Source: Chengdu Discovery