Shanghai Disneyland will strive to ensure “safe and pleasing service of high quality” to its guests in China, the CEO of Walt Disney Co promised President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
Robert Iger made the remark while meeting with Xi in Beijing, just before the start of the park’s trial operation on Saturday.
“It’s good to see the fruits of efforts over the years,” Xi said. He congratulated Iger for the upcoming official opening of the park on June 16.
The project, the first Disney park on the Chinese mainland, was approved when Xi was working as Shanghai’s Party chief in 2007. It is a joint investment by Walt Disney Co and Shanghai Shendi Group Co, and revenue will be shared.
“By working together, our two countries can accomplish some big tasks,” Xi said.
He said that as China-US co-operation has a solid foundation, “it is important for both sides to expand new areas of co-operation and carry on co-operation in greater depth”.
“The Chinese government is totally open to such efforts” and will provide support, Xi added.
He also expressed his wish to see a bilateral investment treaty with the United States signed at an early date.
“What the Walt Disney Co has achieved in China I think is a perfect example of co-operation, but it also came after years of understanding, years of building up deep respect for one another and appreciation for each other’s interests,” said Iger, also deputy chief of the US-China Business Council.
“I support many efforts to strengthen US-based companies’ co-operation in China. I am particularly a supporter of the bilateral investment treaty.”
Jia Xiudong, a research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies, said the park is an example of win-win co-operation between the two nations.
“It earns money, provides convenience to Chinese tourists and promotes cultural exchanges,” Jia said, adding there are more such cases emerging in China-US co-operation.
