On June 28th, invited by Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs of South Africa, Vice President Lin Yi of CPAFFC led a delegation to attend the BRICS Friendship Cities, Local Governments Cooperation and Urbanization Forum held in East London, EasternCape and delivered a speech at the opening ceremony on behalf of the Chinese delegates.

The BRICS Friendship Cities and Local Governments Cooperation Forum was jointly launched by CPAFFC and CIFCA in 2011. It aims to promote friendship-city twinning and international cooperation and exchanges among the BRICS countries. It is convened annually by the hosting country of the BRICS Leaders Meeting since the year 2011.  Under the theme of Building sustainable and inclusive cities through innovation and partnerships, delegates discussed issues of urbanization cooperation, sustainable human settlements and urban-rural infrastructure development and etc. at plenaries and parallel sessions of the forum. Besides the delegation of CPAFFC, about 500 delegates including Deputy Minister Andries Nel of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs of South Africa, Director Alessandra Vieira of Ministry of Cities of Brazil, Counsul-general Roman Ambarov of Russia, Joint Secretary Khushwant Singh Sethi of Panchayati Raj of India are present. As the host, Premier Phumulo Masualle of Eastern Cape Province and Executive Mayor Xola Pakati of Buffalo City Metro and attended and delivered opening remarks.

During the forum, Vice President Lin met with Deputy Minister Andries Nel of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs of South Africa and President Parks Tau of South African Local Government Association respectively. They had in-depth exchanges on promoting cooperation at local and regional level between China and South Africa. Vice President Lin Yi also invited them to attend China International Friendship Cities Conference held in Wuhan this November.

Lin said that we BRICS countries are committed to upholding global peace and contributing to the international security order. With the increasingly close ties among BRICS countries, the BRICS Friendship Cities and Local Governments Cooperation Forum has become an important content of BRICS cooperation. We should make full use of the forum mechanism to strengthen the friendship and local governments cooperation among the BRICS countries. We should expand the coverage of BRICS cooperation and deliver its benefits to more people and promote the "BRICS Plus" cooperation approach and build an open and diversified network of development partnerships to accelerate results-oriented cooperation at local and regional level.

Photographed by Liu Hongmin and Wang Bo