Matt with Gondai san and Asai san
By Matt Harvey – Investment Officer at Invest Liverpool
In October 2017 representing Invest Liverpool, I visited the City of Kobe, for a brief tour of some key assets and to look at potential areas of collaboration between Kobe and Liverpool across various key sectors.
After arriving into Kobe via Shinkansen, the day started at the Kobe City Observation Gallery, located on floor twenty-four of Kobe City Hall. I met with Kobe City Government for introductions and an overview of the city, the key priority sectors in Kobe and was treated to a beautiful panoramic view of the Kobe landscape perfectly situated between the mountains and the sea.
After a walk through Higashi Yeunchi Park and a moment of reflection at the Light of Hope, a monument in the park commemorating the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, we arrived at KIITO, the Design and Creative Centre in Kobe, the name KIITO (raw silk) being significant as the centre is developed within what used to be the Kobe raw silk testing centre. This heritage is still maintained through the Raw Silk Testing Museum which can be visited within the centre.
Welcome to Pennylane Kobe
A creative hub within Kobe, KIITO offers the opportunity for creative companies and individuals to rent workspace, collaborate and showcase. Invest Liverpool are very grateful for having Mr Kondo, manager at the Design and Creative Centre give the tour around KIITO which included the Penny Lane Kobe, a magnificent Beatles inspired venue with merchandise, memorabilia and live Beatles tribute band performances. The Penny Lane Kobe is a fantastic showcase of Liverpool culture, and a fantastic link between the cities of Kobe and Liverpool, and more can be seen via this link. The tour then moved to the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster (KBIC) and very informative discussions in relation to the fields within the Life Science Sector where Liverpool and Kobe share common interests.
Mr Suda, Manager of Research Division, KBIC, explained how the KBIC came to be one of the largest biomedical clusters in Japan, and how the ongoing success has helped the cluster go from having from one company in 1998 to nearly 350 companies located as of September 2017.
Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson OBE, said; “Kobe is a thriving port city, very much like Liverpool, with similar interests across a range of key priority sectors, there is great potential for collaboration. I hope this is the beginning of a fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship between our two great cities.”
The KBIC is a very similar model to that of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, a combined effort between research bodies and universities, medical institutions such as hospitals and clinics and the companies that produce and commercialise products and services to the public.
The KBIC is home to world-class R&D centres such as the Translational Research and Informatics Centre (TRI) and the RIKEN Centre for Life Sciences Technologies (CLST), highly advanced medical institutions such as the Kobe Minimally Invasive Cancer Centre and the Kobe Proton Therapy Centre which is set to open in December 2017, as well as being home to “K”, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.
The visit finished with a brief stop at Meriken Park, to see the iconic Kobe Port Tower and the surrounding waterfront area, before heading back to Sannomiya Station for departure from Kobe.
Dialogue with Kobe began with a 2017 meeting in Liverpool between representatives of the city government and the team from the International Business Festival. The major trade and investment event is hosted every two years in Liverpool, and welcomes business leaders and investors from around the world to connect, trade and share knowledge. Liverpool will continue dialogue with the City of Kobe to identify and promote areas of mutually beneficial collaboration between our two great cities within our key priority sector areas
Invest Liverpool would like to thank Kobe City Government for hosting and coordinating this visit to Kobe and we look forward to welcoming Kobe back to Liverpool in the future.
Invest Liverpool would also like to thank Japan Local Government Centre (JLGC) for initial introductions to Kobe City Government and ongoing support.
Matt Harvey
Investment Officer
Invest Liverpool
0151 600 2930
mharvey@investliverpool.com
The 2018 International Business Festival will be held in Liverpool, 12-28 June 2018.
For information and tickets visit internationalbusinessfestival.com
