Building an international business-law environment was the focus of the Shenzhen Internationalization Symposium on Nov 18.

Shenzhen Party chief Wang Rong said at the conference that building a business-law environment has become an urgent issue.

“About 30 years ago, Shenzhen was the first city to reform and open up, and it developed into an international city from a small fishing town. The city is a typical case for the Chinese Dream. Today the city will continue to maintain its competitiveness and lead reform,” he said.

Lee P. Brown, the former mayor of Houston, Shenzhen's first sister city, said that several criteria of an international city are safety, education, diversity and government integrity.

“I am impressed by the tremendous progress in Shenzhen,” Brown said, adding that Shenzhen already has the quality of an international city.

Until now, Shenzhen has 53 sister cities worldwide, six of which are newly signed on Sunday.

The newest sister cities are Suva, Fiji; Athens, Greece; Cork, Ireland; Plovdiv, Bulgaria; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; and Ankara, Turkey.

Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin said at the sister-city event that he hopes for more bilateral and multilateral exchanges among the cities, as well as strengthened cooperation in education, technology, emerging industries, culture and tourism.