International family gains more members

Guangzhou is seeking to establish more sister and friendly city relationships to strengthen international exchanges with cities related to the Belt and Road. 

Its new friends in the past couple of years include Rabat of Morocco, Pokhara of Nepal, Lodz of Poland, Mombasa of Kenya and Prague of the Czech Republic. 

Liu Baochun, director general at the foreign affairs office of the Guangzhou city government, said the city has 36 sister cities in 33 countries, as well as 29 friendly cities in 24 countries, including those related to the Belt and Road. 

"We are looking forward to establishing friendships with Iran and other Middle East countries, and Mediterranean countries like Greece," the official said. 

"Guangzhou has either sister cities or friendly cities in all major nodes along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road," he said. "And many cooperative projects in an array of fields are under way." 

A Guangzhou park was built in the Seychelles last year to help to construct its botanical garden, and an economic city will be established in Saudi Arabia, said Liu. 

He said that the city's tripartite economic alliance with Auckland of New Zealand and Los Angeles of the United States, which was signed in November 2014, turned bilateral communication into multilateral cooperation."The alliance signifies a new cooperative pattern for international sister cities," remarked the official. 

According to the official, the third tripartite economic summit will be held in Guangzhou, with a theme of innovative cooperation and sharing opportunities. Topics include innovation and entrepreneurship, tourism, cross-border e-commerce, higher education, animation and urban planning. 

Preliminary cooperation agreements were reached among more than 150 enterprises from the three cities at the first tripartite economic summit held in Los Angeles in 2015. The cooperation covers logistics, scientific innovation, biological medicine, film and entertainment. 

Companies from Guangzhou signed 11 trade and scientific research-related agreements at the second summit held in Auckland. A total of 62 cooperation intentions were achieved ranging from design and high technology to high-end travel. 

chenmeiling@chinadaily.com.cn 

(China Daily 05/15/2017 page29)