Andreas Goetz, a Swiss expert on water management, considers his work in China for more than a decade a great success. “We first made a rope of cooperation. Now, it has developed into a net,” the-68-year-old says of the roles Chen Lei, China’s water resources minister, and he have played on various projects. The two men first met in 2001, when Goetz was deputy director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. In its journey to become a developed country, Switzerland has gained much experience in water management and has collected relevant data for years. During their interactions, the two experts found that both countries were pursuing similar goals in water management, and the first joint project began in 2002 after news of a Yangtze River flood drew Goetz’s attention.