Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

On November 28th to 29th , hosted by CPAFFC, CIFCA and Guangzhou Municipal People’s Government, undertaken by Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office, 2014 China International Friendship Cities Conference and Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference were successfully held in Guangzhou Baiyun International Conference Center. More than 600 guests including more than 30 Vice Mayors and higher level officials of Chinese cities, more than 80 Director Generals and Vice Director Generals of Chinese provincial or municipal foreign affairs offices and more than 60 foreign Mayors and head of local government organizations from 277 cities and organizations of 56 countries and regions attended the conference.

Mr. Chen Changzhi, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People''''s Congress and Chairman of the Central Committee of China Democratic National Construction Association，Mr. Li Jianping, Vice President of CPAFFC, Mr. Xie Yuan, Vice President of CPAFFC, Mr. Hu Sishe, Vice President of CPAFFC, Mr. Ma Xingrui, Deputy Secretary of CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, Mr. Ren Xuefeng, Secretary of CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee, Mr. Zhou Tianhong, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of Guangdong Provincial People''''s Congress, Mr. Liu Zhigeng, Vice Governor of Guangdong Province, Mr. Chen Jianhua, Mayor of Guangzhou, Mr. Lin Yifu, Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and former Senior Vice President of the World Bank, Mr. Eugenio Rojas Apaza, President of the Senate of The Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia, Mr. Willem Kok, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, etc. attended the opening ceremony. Mr. Chen Changzhi, Mr. Hu Sishe, Mr. Ma Xingrui, Mr. Chen Jianhua, Mr. Eugenio Rojas Apaza, Mr. Willem Kok and Mr.José Luís Schafer delivered speeches respectively at the opening ceremony.

With the theme of “Friendship Cities and Urban Innovation”, Top Talk of Cities and theme forums on “Urbanization and Smart City ” and “Silk Road and Local Governments Cooperation” were held at the conference . At the newly twined friendship cities signing ceremony, CIFCA signed a MOU with Association of Communes of Romania (ACOR), and Guangzhou signed agreements on the establishment of friendship cities relations with Pokhra, Nepal and Quito, Ecuador. Chinese and foreign provinces/cities which had made outstanding contributions to the course of friendship cities in the past two years were awarded at the conference. 5 Chinese provinces/cities were granted the Award to Friendship Cities for Special Contribution, 38 Chinese provinces/ cities/ prefecture-level cities were granted the Award to Friendship Cities for Exchanges and Cooperation, 81 foreign cities were granted the Award to Friendship Cities for Exchanges and Cooperation with China. Photo exhibitions on the history of CPAFFC and achievements of china international friendship cities were held during conference.

It was decided that 2016 China International Friendship Cities Conference will be held in Shandong Province.