Activities in Celebration of 30 Years of Jiangsu’s International Friendship-City

As a part of commemoration of the 30th anniversary of China’s adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, a series of activities with the theme of “friendship, harmony, cooperation and development” were held in Nanjing from October 28 to 31, 2008 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jiangsu’s international friendship-city exchanges. These activities aimed at reviewing the development, summing up the experience and displaying in a systematic way the achievements in Jiangsu’s international friendship-city work over the past 30 years and further consolidating and deepening exchanges and cooperation between Jiangsu and its twinned counterparts in other countries.

One hundred and seventy-two delegations and groups with 1,106 people from 45 countries, 480 representatives of foreign experts in the cultural and educational fields working in Jiangsu and foreign students studying in the province, leaders of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the CPAFFC, the Foreign Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the CPC and Jiangsu Province as well as personages of all circles in Jiangsu, totalling more than 7,000, took part in the activities. Alfred Gusenbauer, federal chancellor of Austria, John Brumby, premier of Victoria State of Australia, and Kim Han-kyu, chairman of the 21st Century Korea- China Exchange Association of the Republic of Korea, sent us messages of congratulations.

Enhancing Mutual Trust and Friendship

In the 30 years of China’s reform and opening up, Jiangsu has scored brilliant achievements in its economic and social development. Great changes have taken place in its cities and rural areas, people’s living standards have been improved remarkably and various undertakings developed vigorously, of which friendship-city work has played an important role. Up to now, the province has twinned 200 pairs of friendship cities and established 184 pairs of friendly exchange relations with its counterparts in 43 countries. They serve as an important platform for Jiangsu to carry out exchanges and cooperation with foreign countries. In recent years, through its friendship-city channel the province has introduced over 1,000 foreign investment projects and helped more than 600 enterprises go global, winning good development results. More than 1,000 foreign friends gathered in Jiangsu to participate in the celebration, many of whom visited the province for the first time. The trip left on them deep impressions, enhanced their favourable opinions of Jiangsu and increased their confidence in cooperating with it. The fact that all the twinned counterparts of Jiangsu sent delegations to take part in the activities despite the long distance showed the importance they attached to developing friendly relations with the province. During the celebration, ceremonies to confer the title of Honorary Citizen of Jiangsu and Friendship Ambassador were held in recognition of the outstanding contributions made by those foreign friends who have persisted in promoting friendship, bilateral exchanges and cooperation with China. Five foreign friends received the title of Honorary Citizen of Jiangsu and two the title of Friendship Ambassador.

Practical Exchanges

Friendship is the prerequisite and cooperation the basis. To let these activities produce more practical results, Forums on “internationalization of higher education”, “international environmental protection policies and practices”, “opportunity, challenges and future of modern service in Jiangsu”, and “economic cooperation and trade with the theme of ‘mutual benefit, win-win cooperation and economic globalization’” were held. Representatives of higher-learning institutions from 13 countries and relevant personages from 40 universities and colleges in Jiangsu, totalling over 200 people, attended the education forum; 310 representatives from 21 countries and relevant departments and enterprises in the province took part in the forum on modern service industry, 400 government officials, specialists and representatives of enterprises of friendship cities from 14 countries participate in the forum on environmental protection, and more than 200 entrepreneurs from home and abroad held business talks and exchanges at the meeting of exchanges between environmental protection enterprices. At the celebration meeting, signing ceremonies were held. Eight cities and counties, five departments, two universities and a museum in Jiangsu signed with their foreign counterparts 18 agreements on the establishment of friendship-city and friendly exchange relations, involving cooperation in the areas of administration, education, culture, people-to-people exchanges, etc. These activities showed that by twinning friendship-city ties we harvested not only friendship, but also fruits of practical cooperation.

Ordinary People’s Extensive Participation

Apart from these practical exchanges in the fields of economy and trade, education, environmental protection and modern service industry, colourful cultural and art programmes as well as such activities as exchanges and interaction between ordinary citizens were also included in the celebration with more than 2,000 people taking part in them. Art troupes from 11 countries put on programmes with distinctive national characteristics. Twenty-two interaction areas were set up at the site of celebration by friendship organizations from five countries and ten cities in the province. Nantong City sent an acrobatic troupe and a puppet troupe, Suqian City a martial art troupe, Xuzhou City a farmers’ orchestra and the cities of Huai’an, Taizhou and Yancheng sent folk arts and handicrafts demonstration teams. More than 300 professional actors and actresses, folk artists and amateurs from various cities in the province came to Nanjing to join the celebration and have exchanges with the foreign delegations and the citizens of Nanjing. The art troupes from 13 countries staged a joint performance entitled “Making Friends Throughout the World”. In the 2-hour performance, the audience interacted with the performers, and the joyous singing and dancing reciprocated with cheers from the audience. It was really a grand gala of friendship cities.

Showing Achievements of Friendship-City Work

The Retrospective Expo on Jiangsu’s 30-Year International Friendly Exchanges was held during the celebration activities. The more than 1,000 photos displayed on 500-odd boards systematically showed the achievements of Jiangsu’s friendship-city work in economic, social and cultural exchanges. Over 40 foreign friendship city delegations and some 400 foreign guests visited the exhibition. The visitors spoke highly of the exhibition and many wrote down on the visitor’s book their impressions.