The Second Annual Meeting of the Jinan Mayor's International Economic Consultation Commission (IECC) was held in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong province, from Sept 3 to 4.

Fourteen members of the consultation committee, who are also business elites from world top 500 companies like Microsoft, Siemens, Hitachi and Saint-Gobain, converged in Jinan to share their insights into the city's development.

The round meeting was first held in the city in Sept 3, 2017. As a platform to promote Jinan's development, this year's summit is themed on the organic renewal of cities and how to build Jinan into a modern quality city.  

Xia Lan, the Chinese CEO of French energy company Engie Group, said in a speech that new energy related businesses such as solar power and smart city solutions including urban networks for heating and cooling distribution and electric vehicle charging stations will be the major focus of the company in China.

Engie Group intends to seek cooperative partners in Jinan to expand new energy projects in the solar energy and electric automobile fields.

Wei Qing, the chief technology officer of Microsoft in China, discussed the effect big data has had on social development.

Microsoft has built technological platforms to help local companies develop in the fields of internet of things and artificial intelligence.

"We will deepen partnership with Jinan city and provided technologies, capital, and businesses services to help local companies develop," Wei said at the annual meeting.

In 2017, 21 elites contributed 19 reports and 65 consultations tailored to the city's development in new energy, talent training and industry transformation and upgrading.

Sun Shutao, mayor of Jinan, delivers a speech on Sept 3 at the 2018 IECC in Jinan, Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Business elites share views on city development at the round meeting on Sept 4. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]