On Dec. 18th, the World Historic and Cultural Canal Cities Cooperation Organization (WCCO) held the inaugural meeting of the World Ancient Canal Towns Service Platform in Yangzhou, in collaboration with Yangzhou Municipal Tourism Administration and 86LINKS. The meeting was presided over by Mr. Wu Wenxue, WCCO Expert and former Director of China National Tourism Administration, and was attended by Mr. Zhu Minyang (WCCO Chairman), Mr. Zhang Yuejin (Director of WCCO Experts Committee), Mme. Deng Qing (Secretary-General), and Mr. Zhang Guilian (Executive Director of WCCO Development Committee).
 

Other attendees included representatives of international NGOs and research institutions such as World Green Design Organization(WGDO), Shanghai Jiaotong University Innovation Design Center, Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Development of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 86links, Zhejiang Coorun Information Technology Co., Ltd, Zhejiang Drore Technology Company Co., Ltd, Zhejiang Dafeng Industrial Co. ,Ltd., Yangzhou Branch of Bank of China, Fortune Link Venture Capital Co. ,Ltd., as well as representative of 26 ancient canal towns from Beijing, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces along with their local governmental tourism administrations.

On September 8th, 2017, WCCO held the World Canal Cities Forum in Yangzhou at which 20 ancient canal towns founded a World Ancient Canal Towns Cooperation Mechanism and signed the“Yangzhou Initiative on World Ancient Canal Towns Cooperation”. This meeting was an effort to put the Yangzhou Initiative into practice by building an online platform for the exchanges and cooperation between world ancient canal towns. With an internationalized vision, the platform uses modern media technologies as its carrier and aims to optimize resources allocation, facilitate information publication and services provision, delivering matching services between the demand and supply sides involved in the development of canal towns.

During the meeting, supply-side representatives from 8 higher education research institutes, NGOs, enterprises and funds introduced their respective services and products that they have designed for the canal towns. 6 founding members to the World Ancient Canal Towns Cooperation Mechanism (Yulinzhuang, Yaowan, Hexia, Huishan, Shaobo and Xinshi townships) signed service contracts with 86LINKS (the platform’s operator), under which the towns shall enjoy free membership for the platform. Representatives of the canal towns expressed their support and expectations for the platform.

Thereafter, the World Ancient Canal Town Cooperation Service Platform（http://yhgz.86links.com）was successfully online. Ms. Wang Xinping (President of 86LINKS), Ms. Wu Yahui (Mayor of Matou Town) and Mr. Bao Haiyong (Vice President of Zhejiang Drore Technology Company Co., Ltd), represented the operator, the ancient towns, and the service-suppliers respectively and launched the website officially. 

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Zhu Minyang, Chairman of WCCO, commented that if we were to compare the canal cities to large and well-established companies, then ancient towns may be considered as small and medium-sized enterprises. These ancient towns are blue waters which have yet to be explored by us. Concerted efforts from the entire society is required for the development of the canals and canal towns. In the spirit of cooperating, sharing and win-win, WCCO serves the canal towns and cities by integrating various resources and matching the demand and supply sides. Through the establishment of the World Ancient Canal Towns Cooperation Mechanism, the launch of the online cooperation service platform, and the forming of a media alliance, WCCO has developed an overall service framework for the canal towns. Hopefully, this framework will gain recognition and support from the ancient canal towns and as well as the cooperation from suppliers.