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AUSTIN, the United States, March 9-- How can Chinese city of Chengdu and U.S. city of Austin, nearly 13,000 km apart, forge a bond? Aside from the fact that they are both located in the southwest of their respective countries and have nurtured people fond of spicy food, the two cities, perhaps surprising to many, share a zeal for innovation. Chengdu and Austin are now seriously considering teaming up to tap opportunities that are already there or wait to be created while working toward the establishment of a formal relationship. "The cities of Austin and Chengdu have so much in common," Steve Adler, mayor of Austin, U.S. state of Texas, said at an event promoting Chengdu. "Chengdu is a very fast growing city in China, and Austin of Texas is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States. Chengdu is a city full of innovation and high technology, a city that is really growing, as is Austin," Adler said. Austin is home to 46 incubators and has attracted a great many tech companies, including Apple, Samsung, IBM and Amazon, said David Colligan, manager of Global Business Expansion at the City of Austin Economic Development Department. Chengdu, at the same time, is striving to build itself into a "city of innovation," with a goal of increasing the added value of cultural and creative industries to 180 billion yuan (26.8 billion U.S. dollars), or about 10 percent of the city's GDP, according to Zhang Yingming, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Chengdu Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. | 
