We have been facilitating a series of partnerships with Wuhan. ChCh and Wuhan are sister cities now, after the signing of Friendship City Agreement in April 2006, with all our interactions with Wuhan managed by the CDC at the end of Christchurch.

Quite a number of partnerships have been set up:

1. Education Christchurch/Canterbury entered into a partnership with Wuhan Education Bureau (WEB) on 10 October 2005, and both sides are working closely together around sister school projects and joint vocational training projects.
   
2. Gateway Antarctica in the University of Canterbury (UC) and Chinese Antarctic Centre of Surveying & Mapping  in Wuhan University signed an MoU in November 2005, with Prof E Dongchen, a world renowned scholar in Antarctic research and the Chinese member of SCAR Geoscience Standing Scientific Group, taking the lead on the Chinese side. Right now, a joint project is being planned, incorporating two partners in China and two partners in Christchurch.
   
3. UC College of Business and Economics in the University of Canterbury and Zhongnan University of Economics & Law (ZUEL) became academic partners in Dec. 2005, with PVC & Prof Nigel Healey and Prof John Gibson from the UC side, and President & Prof Wu Handong and Prof Zhang Xingguo from ZUEL side managing the partnership.
   
4. UC and Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) became partner universities in April 2006. HUST is a prestigious engineering-oriented University in China. Prof. Jin Hai, a world-renowned Grid Computing scientist and Dean of College of Computer Science & Technology (CCST) of HUST, twice visited UC College of Engineering in the University of Canterbury, and Ms Xie Xia from CCST HUST worked in UC College of Engineering for a month to identify areas for future cooperation. In the year of 2006, Assoc. Prof. Tim Bell is going to visit the CCST of HUST twice to further the research collaboration. Right now there are four joint projects under way, with an additional two or three around the corner.
   
5. Lincoln University renewed its agreement with Huazhong Agricultural University (HAU) in April 2006, broadening the cooperation to research collaboration, staff exchange and so on.
   
6. UC Foundation Programme set up a partnership with No. 1 Middle School Attached to Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan in April 2006, and both sides are jointly exploring the possibilities of having part of the UC foundation studies in the School.
   
7. An agreement was signed on Sister Schools Alliance between Wuhan High Schools and Christchurch High Schools in April 2006.
   
8. An MoU was signed between Christchurch Girls High School (CGHS) and Wuhan Girls High School (WGHS) by Prue Taylor, Principal of CGHS, and Mr Li, Principal of WGHS in April 2006.
   
9. An MoU was signed by Murray Acklin, Director of NZ Racing Board, and Jackie Hu, GM of Oriental Lucky Horse in April 2006.
    

Future partnerships:

1. Investor Cluster with HUST Venture Capital.
   
2. Crop & Food is keen to have a few joint projects with HAU. Both sides are in close contact in this regard.
   
3. Horticultural Cluster and Botanic Garden with Wuhan Botanic Garden of Chinese Academy of Science.
   
4. Local Vocational Training Alliance with WEB.
   
5. The Press with Wuhan Changjiang Daily Group
   
6. A partnership is going to be set up soon regarding the cooperation between Christchurch Vocational Training Alliance and WEB Vocational Training Group.