Participants attend a session of the 2026 Global Mayors Dialogue at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port's Meishan terminal in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 3, 2026. (Xinhua/Sui Lixi)

　　NINGBO, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- As driverless trucks carried containers along preset routes and gantry cranes worked overhead at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port's Meishan terminal, Romulus Agbedjekou was thinking of a harbor thousands of kilometers away in Benin.

　　"This is one of the most modern ports in the world," said Agbedjekou, special representative of the mayor of Cotonou and chair of the city's economic affairs commission. Impressed by the automated equipment at the East China Sea port in Zhejiang Province, he said he hopes to replicate some of the practices at his country's Autonomous Port of Cotonou.

　　His interest reflects a practical focus of the 2026 Global Mayors Dialogue, which brought mayors and representatives from 20 cities in 15 countries to Ningbo in Zhejiang from Nov. 2 to 5. They came with different priorities, from making ports more efficient to helping smaller companies use new technology.

　　Fourteen cooperation projects were signed during the gathering, covering trade, technology, education, tourism and exchanges between local governments.

　　Ahmed Wazeery, secretary-general of Suez Governorate, Egypt, talked about his nation's Suez Canal Economic Zone, with six ports and four industrial areas, and the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, where investment has exceeded 6.7 billion U.S. dollars.

　　Wazeery saw opportunities to expand cooperation with Ningbo beyond industry and manufacturing, particularly in education, cultural industries and high-tech industrial parks.