Partner cities
Dongguan (China)
The city of Dongguan is one of the most important cities in China. It is located in the southeast of China in the Pearl River Delta, which is one of the wealthiest and most progressive parts of China. The cities Kanton, Hong Kong and Macao are located in the same area. Dongguan focuses on direct foreign investments – it is the 4th largest exporter in China, bigger even than Beijing. In terms for production of the Chinese market, Dongguan is the third most important city in China. The number of people in Dongguan has rapidly grown in the recent years due to dynamically developing business and employment opportunities. Dongguan has about 6,000,000 inhabitants, another 2,000,000 commute to the city for work. Major companies such as Samsung, Coca-cola, Nokia, Nestle, Maersk and many others have their headquarters in Dongguan.
Katowice (Poland)
With more than 300,000 inhabitants, Katowice is one of the largest cities in Upper Silesia. It is the centre of a two million agglomeration known particularly for coal mining and heavy engineering industry. Katowice is also a university city - Uniwersytet Ślaski was founded in 1968. Cooperation between Opava and Katowice takes place mainly in the field of culture, sports and youth. The Silesian universities – Silesian University in Opava and Uniwersytet Ślaski – hold teacher and student exchange programmes.
Leoben (Austria)
Leoben is a district town in Styria at the foot of the Ennstal Alps. With 25,000 inhabitants it is the second largest town in Upper Styria. Leoben is a university town; Montanuniversität Leoben is a technically oriented university. The town is known for its long mining and metallurgical tradition and is a producer of a famous Austrian beer Gösser. Opava established the first contact with Leoben in 2011. The cooperation involves culture, exchange of good practices between the two town, and meetings of city representatives. The Chambers of Commerce in both towns have also established cooperation. Opava takes inspiration from Leoben in the fields of strategic planning, strategic management, or the cooperation with other institutions in the city and region.
Opava used to cooperate also with Toyokawa and Tsukuba (Japan), Preveza (Greece), Holstebro (Denmark), Delft (Holland), the royal city of Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria), Vaduz (Liechtenstein), and Kamyšin (Russia). Today’s Hotel Koruna was named after the city of Kamyšin.