Exclusive Interview | "Hope to Work Together with China" -- Mayor Gaziantep of Türkiye Expects the Important Town of the Ancient Silk Road to Radiate New Vitality

Xinhua News Agency, Gaziantep, Türkiye, May 28, by wire | "Hope to work together with China" -- Mayor of Gaziantep, Türkiye, looks forward to the revival of the ancient Silk Road city

Xinhua News Agency reporter Xiong Sihao

As an important city along the ancient Silk Road, Gaziantep, the largest city in southeast Türkiye, once flourished. Mayor Fatima Shahin of Gaziantep recently stated in an interview with Xinhua News Agency, "We hope to work together with China to build and revitalize the ancient Silk Road town that has lasted for thousands of years

Gaziantep was once an important textile trading center along the ancient Silk Road, and to this day, the city still preserves several ruins of former caravan stations. Sha Xin said that the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" initiative is a good cooperative development initiative and has positive significance for cities along the ancient Silk Road, including Gaziantep. Gaziantep focuses on sustainable development, smart city applications, environmental protection, and improving citizen well-being, hoping to learn from China's experience in modernizing urban governance and sustainable development.

Shahin, who comes from a background in chemical engineering, is a native of Gaziantep and entered politics in 2001. She became the first female mayor of Gaziantep in 2014 and has been re elected ever since. In December 2024, she was invited to attend the 2024 Beijing Complaints and Immediate Reform Forum to explore the "people-oriented modernization of urban governance" and "witness China's development and progress up close".

Sha Xin learned at the forum that in the face of urban governance difficulties, Beijing has innovatively carried out the reform of handling complaints immediately since 2019, receiving a total of 150 million complaints from the public and enterprises, and the resolution rate and satisfaction rate have both increased to 97%.

Such a high rate of demand resolution and satisfaction is indeed a remarkable achievement, "said Sha Xin. Gaziantep, with a population of over 2 million, is also promoting the construction of smart cities." If there are similar big data technologies and artificial intelligence models as support, it can bring unprecedented opportunities for the sustainable development of the city.

As one of the important economic hubs in Türkiye, Gaziantep is famous for its industrial sectors, especially the textile and manufacturing industries. When it comes to priority areas of cooperation with Chinese cities, Sha Xin told reporters, "Some cities in China have already established high-quality artificial intelligence industries, and we hope to cooperate. Our goal is to transform existing industrial parks into green, low-carbon, sustainable, and resilient industrial parks, which requires more cooperation with Chinese industry leaders

She stated that China is an important participant in the global solar energy industry, and Gaziantep welcomes Chinese solar energy companies to set up factories locally. "Currently, Chinese companies and two local companies have cooperated in solar energy, driving local economic development and achieving a win-win situation.

This article is from Xinhua News Agency