Feb 2 – Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining met with WorldSkills President Francis Hourant, Chief Executive Officer David Hoey, and their delegation, who were in Shanghai to attend the preparation week meeting and related activities for the 48th WorldSkills Competition.

Chen said that Shanghai is sparing no effort and striving for excellence in its preparations, aiming to deliver a WorldSkills Competition that is innovative and with broad international impact.

He expressed the city's willingness to strengthen communication and coordination with WorldSkills, make better use of platforms such as the competition, and deepen international exchanges and cooperation in skills development.

Hourant and Hoey said they hope that hosting the competition in Shanghai, together with a series of exchange and promotion activities, will help launch and advance the WorldSkills Vision 2035.

They added that this will also facilitate the sharing of innovative ideas and practices from different countries and jointly move the global skills agenda forward.

Feb 5 – Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng met with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi and his delegation.

Gong said he hopes to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Uruguay by leveraging the high-quality joint development of the Belt and Road Initiative. He added that this would achieve higher-level mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, bringing greater benefits to the people of both places.

He highlighted cooperation in areas including trade and investment, port collaboration, and people-to-people exchanges.

Orsi said Shanghai is not only a model of economic development, but also an example of people-centered development that seeks to enhance the well-being of residents.

He noted that China accounts for more than one quarter of Uruguay's total exports, with Shanghai Port playing a key role. Being in Shanghai, he said, he was able to see both the past and present of Uruguay-China cooperation. He added that it also gave him a clearer view of the future of deeper cooperation between the two countries.