On Oct. 28th, organized by the CPAFFC and Japan National Governors’ Association (JNGA), the second China-Japan Governors’Forum was held in Beijing. The forum was co-hosted by Li Xiaolin, President of the CPAFFC and Keiji Yamada, Governor of Kyoto Prefecture and President of JNGA. Over 100 persons attended the forum The Chinese attendants include Zhang Qingwei, Governor of Heibei Province, Cao Xiaohong, Governor of Liaoning Province, Lou Qinjian, Governor of Shaanxi Province, Zhong Mian, Executive Vice-governor of Sichuan Province, Cao Xiaohong, Vice-mayor of Tianjin City, Xia Geng, Vice-governor of Shandong Province, Gan Rongkun, Vice-Governor of Hubei Province and other provincial and municipal leaders. The Japanese attendants include Hirohiko Izumida,Governor of Niigata Prefecture, Shinji Hirai, Governor of Tottori Prefecture, Shuichi Abe, Governor of Nagano Prefecture, Tsugumasa Muraoka, Governor of Yamaguchi Prefecture, Taizo Mikazuki, Vice-governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, Yoshiaki Nakashita, Vice-governor of Hiroshima Prefecture. The theme of this year’s forum is strengthening pragmatic cooperation and achieving common development. The representatives of the both sides exchanged views on communication and cooperation in fields of economy, trading, environmental protection, tourism and etc.. The forum was a great success. The aim of Sino-Japanese Governors’Forum is to offer a high-level platform of exchanging for the Chinese and Japanese governors, to enhance the mutual understanding and trust of the two sides, and promote the friendly exchanges as well as deepen the in-depth cooperation of the local governments of the two countries. The first Sino-Japanese Governors’Forum  was held in Tokyo, Japan. President Li Xiaolin Delivering Opening Speech

At the invitation of CPAFFC and recommended by the Chinese Consulate-General in Songkhla of Thailand, the delegation of Chief Executives of Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO) offices and mayors from South Thailand visited China from October 12th to 20th, 2014. The delegation was composed by 14 people including the Chief Executives of Songkhla, Satun and Nakhon Si Thammarat PAO offices and 7 mayors from South Thailand, headed by Mr. Nipon Bunyamanee, Chief Executive of Songkhla Provincial Administrative Organization Office. The delegation visited Fujian and Guangxi mainly for inspecting urban infrastructure, reconstruction of the old city area and tourism facilities and expressed the willingness of cooperation in terms of rubber, palm industry and urban infrastructure. Mr. Zhang Jinxiong, Chinese Consul-General in Songkhla accompanied the delegation throughout the whole journey.

On September 17th to 18th, accompanied by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the visiting President Xi Jinping attended the signing ceremony of the agreement on the establishment of friendship-cities & states/ provinces relations between Guangdong and Gujarat, Guangzhou and Ahmedabad, Shanghai and Mumbai. This is the second batch of friendship-city agreement signed following the signing of the first batch last October. Guangdong and Gujarat is the first friendship-state/province relation between China and India, which highlighting the two sides’ strong desire to strengthen bilateral relations and promote local exchanges. Mr.Xu Shaohua, Executive Vice Governor of Guangdong and Mr.Varesh Sinha, Chief Secretary of Gujarat signed the Agreement Mr. Tu Guangshao, Executive Vice Mayor of Shanghai and Mme.Snehal Ambekar, Mayor of Mumbai exchanged the Agreement Mr. Chen Jianhua, Mayor of Guangzhou and Mr. Thennarasan, Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad signed the Agreement

On Sept. 12th, Mr. Xie Yuan had a lunch meeting with the delegation led by Hon. Stephen McNeil, Premier of Nova Scotia of Canada. Mr. Xie welcomed the delegation and introduced our conception of establishing the mechanism for exchanges among local government leaders at provincial level between China and Canada and emphasized that the cooperation of our two countries had great potentiality. Hon. Stephen McNeil expressed that this conception was beneficial to promoting the exchanges among local governments of our two countries and Nova Scotia was willing to work together with CPAFFC to further the relationship among local governments of the two countries. H.E.Mr.Guy Saint-Jacques, Ambassador of Canadian Embassy to China and Mr. Hao Zhongwei, Deputy Director General of Department of American and Oceanian Affairs of CPAFFC were present.

Director-General Zhang Heqiang of the Department of American and Oceanian Affairs met with vice president Wang Xiaoping of the American Chamber of Commerce in P.R.C. on July 10th. Director-General Zhang introduced the work done in the past that have enhanced China-U.S. relationship and bilateral cooperation in the fields of trade and commerce and so on by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. He also recommended the 2014 American & Oceanian Regions Economic and Trade Fair, to be co-hosted by CPAFFC and Jilin Provincial People’s Government from September 15th to 17th, 2014. He hoped the American counterparts could actively participate in the fair, and highlighted that both China and the U.S. should work on pragmatic cooperation and establish long-term mechanism, moreover, he mentioned that people-people exchange is also of vital importance. Vice President Li Dongmei and Secretary-General Chen Xufeng of the Jilin Provincial People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries introduced the trade fair in detail and invited heads of the American Chamber of Commerce in the P.R.C. and the American entrepreneurs to attend the trade fair. Wang Xiaoping, Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in P.R.C., introduced the development of the chamber since its establishment in 1991 and illustrated their two main working targets which include bringing American investors to China to find business opportunities and helping Chinese enterprises go out to explore American market. He said the chamber will organize their enterprise members to participate in the fair and wish it a great success in advance. 

On July 9th, Xie Yuan, Vice President Xie Yuan of CPAFFC attended the 10th anniversary celebration dinner of the establishment of Nevada Commission on Tourism (NCOT) China Office. Xie mentioned in his speech that, as one of the first American tourism agencies opened in China, NCOT has been very active in promoting Nevada’s relationship with China during the past 10 years. Xie also pointed out that, as one of China’s earliest national people’s organizations, throughout the 35 years diplomatic relations of the two countries, CPAFFC has been actively engaged in enhancing the local government exchanges between China and the U.S. During the increasingly closer exchanges of local governments, the different agencies of American states in China have played an important role, including the NCOT China office. We hope the China Office could continue the efforts in promoting Nevada’s exchanges and cooperation with China. He Guangwei, the then Minister of China National Tourism Administration and current Executive Commissioner of People''s Political Consultative Conference; Song Yu, Chief Director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development; Brian Krolicki, Lieutenant Governor of Nevada and his colleagues were also present at this event.    Before the dinner, the guests witnessed the resigning of the Tourism Memorandum of Understanding between Beijing and Nevada.

At the invitation of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the U.S. silicon valley mayors delegation led by Michael Brownrigg， mayor of Burlingame city, visited Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen from June 17th to 27th.   During their stay in Beijing, President Li Xiaolin met with the delegation and introduced the aims of CPAFFC, the association’s work during the past 60 years since its establishment as well as the recent exchanges and cooperation between China and the U.S. She conveyed the hope that after this visit to China, the delegation would know more about China and help to promote sister-city exchange, cooperation in high-tech industry and other fields. Zhang Xiangchen, the Assistant Minister of of Commerce, and Cong Peiwu, Director General of Department of American and Oceanian Affairs of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met with the delegation respectively and exchanged views on China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation, bilateral relations and so on. Besides, the delegation visited Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park and had a meeting with local companies, seeking for opportunities for future cooperation.  Zhou Bo,Vice Mayor of Shanghai and Tang Jie, Vice Mayor of Shenzhen, met with the delegation respectively, and expressed wishes to deepen cooperation with silicon valley on innovation, city management, education and other areas so as to draw successful experiences from the silicon valley. Through their first visit, Michael Brownrigg and other mayors expressed their curiosity and appreciation on China’s fast development and their deep impression of Chinese government’s efforts on supporting high-tech industries and all this provided precious opportunities for cooperation between silicon valley and China.  The delegation is composed of 11 mayors and vice mayors of the U.S. silicon valley. Famous transnational corporations like Apple,Google and Facebook set their headquarters in the silicon valley.

Hosted by CPAFFC, Qinghai Foreign Affairs Office and Xining Municipal People''s Government, 2014 Xining International Forum & Cool City International Forum was Held in Xining on June 11th. Mr. Hu Sishe, Vice President of CPAFFC, Mr. Wang Yubo, Vice Mayor of Xining, Mr. Liujun, Deputy Director General of Qinghai Foreign Affairs Office, ect. attended the forum. Mr. Hu Sishe, Vice President of CPAFFC giving a speech in the forum Mr. Hu Sishe, Vice President of CPAFFC noted in his speech in opening ceremony that as an important city in northwest China, Xining enjoys a long history with profound cultural background, abundant natural resources and splendid folk customs. Hu fully affirmed Xining’s achievements in grasping the opportunity of developing Opening-up to the West and Silk Road Economic Belt, giving full play to its regional advantages, and promoting city to city diplomacy and people to people exchanges. Hu believed the successful hosting of 2014 Xining International Forum & Cool City International Forum will enhance Xining’s international recognition as a famous cool city and instill new vigor and vitality in Xining’s exchanges with international friendship cities. Xining established friendship cities relations with Edirne, Turkey in the forum. Representatives from Belgium, Turkey, Russia, South Korea, Nepal, etc. attended the forum and expressed their strong desire to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Xining in the fields of energy, animal husbandry, environment, education, culture, tourism and so on. Xining established friendship cities relations with Edirne, Turkey witnessed by Mr. Hu Sishe, Vice President of CPPAFFC

Sponsored by CPAFFC and Liaoning Provincial People’s Government, the 2nd China-Tanzania Governors and Mayors Dialogue was held in Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning Province on June 11, 2014.  About 400 guests including Mr. Li Xi, Acting governor of Liaoning Province, Mr. Feng Zuoku, Vice President of CPAFFC, Hon. Hawa A.Ghasia, Minister of State,PMO-RALG, the officials and entrepreneurs of 14 cities from Liaoning Province and 21 Regional Commissioners and Mayors from Tanzania attended the Dialogue. Mr. Li Xi welcomed the Tanzanian friends in his speech and introduced the economic and social development of Liaoning Province. He also encouraged the Liaoning enterprises to invest in Tanzania to make more contributions to the China-Tanzania economic cooperation. Hon. Hawa A.Ghasia thanked the Chinese side for the preparation of the Dialogue and believed that both sides could find new cooperation potential for the common development. During the Dialogue, 8 Regional Commissioners from Tanzania and 5 Mayors and entrepreneurs from Liaoning Province gave the economic promotion. Both side also held the face-to-face economic exchanges for the cooperation consensus.

On May 27th, Vice President Hu Sishe met with Mr. Bernard Dewit, Chairman of Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.  Vice President Hu Sishe welcomed Mr. Bernard Dewit and expressed his sincere thanks for the gracious hospitality of Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce during his visit to Belgium in March this year. Hu briefly introduced his working schedule in 2014 and emphasized two important events in the schedule-- one is that a delegation of cultural officers from Chinese cities and localities will be organized to attend 2014 China-Germany Culture Forum held in Berlin, Germany in September; the other one is 2014 China International Friendship Cities Conference will be held in Guangzhou, China in November. Hu invited Mr. Dewit to attend 2014 China International Friendship Cities Conference and hoped Mr.  Dewit could help organize officers from European Union and Belgian cities and representatives of relevant organizations to attend the conference and share their experience in urbanization with all participants. Mr. Dewit expressed his great interest in the conference and his great willingness to help promote exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and European cities. Mr. Dewit told Hu that Mons, a Belgian city has been elected as 2015 European Capital of Culture and hoped the Chinese delegation of culture could visit Mons after attending the culture forum in Berlin in September to promote Chinese- Belgian Culture exchanges and cooperation. Mr. Dewit mentioned that as a national people’s organization with the longest history engaged in people-to-people diplomacy of the People’s Republic of China, CPAFFC has always been a reliable partner. He hoped CPAFFC and Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce would sign a partnership agreement in the future to further promote the long-term cooperation between the two organizations. Hu expressed his thanks and positive response to Mr. Dewit’s invitation and suggestion