Hunan wins China-Austria Local Government Cooperation Award

Hunan and its friendly-state partner Burgenland, Austria, were recently granted the "China-Austria Local Government Cooperation Award" at the 3rd Forum on China-Austria Local Government Cooperation held in Vienna.

The Forum was co-hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Austrian Society for China Studies (ÖGCF). It aimed to promote friendly China-Austria communications in various fields, based on existing cooperation. The other two pairs of partners that previously won the award are Henan Province and Tyrol State; and Xuzhou City and Leoben City.

Recommended by economist Li Yining, Hunan and Burgenland established a friendly-province-state relationship in September 2000. Over the past 18 years, a series of substantial collaborations have been carried out through high-level visits, agricultural and recreational tourism, urbanization development, Xiangjiang River heavy metal treatment, and high-end cultural entertainment. 

In November 2012, Hunan launched a Mayang modern folk painting exhibition in Burgenland. In June 2018, the Hunan-Burgenland Economic and Trade Fair was held in Changsha. One-to-one talks were organized for 47 Hunan and 19 Austrian companies at the fair. The Austrian companies of automatic control design and environmentally-friendly water treatment drew attention from its Hunan counterparts.