International Mayor Communication Centre

International Mayor Communication Centre
國際市長交流中心

Founded	1999
Type	International Consulting Firm
Focus	Green Development International Cooperation Sustainable Development
Location	Hong Kong SAR Shenzhen, PRC
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Dr. Carl Men Ky Ching[1] (Chairman) Ms. Jin Lan (Executive Director)
Mission	Facilitate cultural exchanges to foster sustainable development
Website	English www.hk-imcc.com Chinese www.hk-imcc.com/imcc/index.html
Formerly called	Hong Kong International Fair Planning Centre

The International Mayor Communication Centre (IMCC) is an international consulting firm which specializes in urban development. The IMCC was founded in 1999 to replace the Honk Kong International Fair Planning Centre. Since its founding the IMCC has established an office in Shenzhen to complement the headquarters in Hong Kong.^[2] The last decade of the IMCC’s history has been characterized by expanding operations and increased global involvement. The staff of the IMCC have helped client cities in securing billions of dollars in investment over the past decade.^[3]

History

The IMCC began operation in 1999 taking over the staff and relationships developed by the Hong Kong International Fair Planning Centre (HKIFPC). Hong Kong SAR has served as the headquarters of the IMCC since the days of its predecessor the HKIFPC. However, with the rapid growth and development taking place in mainland China, the IMCC decided to open a mainland office which, since 2005, has been in operation in Shenzhen, China. The Shenzhen office is located inside the International Mayor Communication Center building on Shennan Road. This new office has allowed to IMCC to recruit more easily from the vast talent pool of mainland China.^[4]

Major Projects

• 1999: The IMCC organized the African Business Investment Opportunity Symposium for the government of Shenzhen.
• 2002: The 2002 World Peace and Development Forum was successfully held by the IMCC in Penglai, Shangdong Province, People’s Republic of China. At this event Dr. Carl Men Ky Ching and Ms. Jin Lan were awarded the United Nations World Peace and Culture Ambassador and the United Nations World Peace and Culture Envoy respectively.
• 2003: This is the year of the IMCC’s inaugural China International Tourism Fair which is now hosted annually in September in Jinnan, China.
• 2004: On behalf of the Shandong provincial government, the IMCC arranged an investment fair in Hong Kong to find parties interested in investing money into development projects in Shangdong. By the end of the fair, the Shandong government had signed agreements worth over four billion HKD in investment. .
• 2006: IMCC’s chairman of the board Dr. Carl Men Ky Ching and Mr. Lain Zhan, chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party invested 100 million USD into Xian to build the Great Town All Day Mall.^[5]
• 2007: The IMCC was called on by the mayor of Shenzhen to assist the Shenzhen government in their bid to host the 2011 World University Games (Universiade). Shenzhen was awarded the right to host the 2011 Universiade beating out Murcia of Spain, Poznari of Poland, Kazan of Russia and Kaohsiung of Taiwan Province.
• 2010: The IMCC invited Chinese government officials to attend the Cityscape Asia Expo in Singapore. In addition to helping recruit participants the IMCC also hosted a city promotion for Fangchenggang city at the expo. The result of this promotion was the signing of a cooperation project valued at 12 million RMB and total investment of 100 million RMB.
• 2010: The IMCC assisted in organizing the Shanghai Expo 2010 China United Nations Millennium Development Goals Urban Construction Forum on behalf of the United Nations Pavilion in Shanghai.^[6]
• 2011: The IMCC will serve as the host and one of the organizers of the Global Mayors' Forum 2011.

Operations

The IMCC has six major areas of specialization, City Operations, Public Relations, Intercity Communication, Capital Operations and High-end Training. These services are provided to business and governments alike who wish to leverage the expertise of the IMCC staff and the global network of partners that the IMCC operates. Since its founding the IMCC has focused in issues relating to sustainable development and green development.

The IMCC operates under the assumption that as our methods of communication have evolved we have reached the point where outside specialists are an increasingly important part of a city's sustainable development program. Every day there are new discoveries made around the world, published in hundreds of scholarly journals in dozens of languages. At the same time there are cities around the world who have found and implemented systems that support sustainable green development. City governments who do not act on the wealth of information available will quickly lose out to more flexible and advanced competition. For a city government, trying to keep up in the most recent developments in this space is like drinking from a fire hose. It is much more economical to cooperate with other cities and outside experts, in order to leverage the investment that is currently taking place and harness the benefits of the research taking place worldwide. It is with this realization in mind that the IMCC peruses its objective to: “Facilitate cultural exchanges to foster sustainable development”.^[7]

With China in the midst of the one of the greatest economic development periods in humans history and having a population participation in the largest mass migration in human history, the challenges faced by mainland Chinese cities are numerous. With this knowledge and years of experience in the field of development the IMCC set out on its campaign to "facilitate cultural exchanges to foster sustainable development". To this end the IMCC has worked on several fronts to expand its network of partners domestically and internationally while increasing its involvement with other organization and UN bodies who share the IMCC vision.^[8]

References