At the invitation of the CPAFFC, the 9-member Malawian Mayors’ Delegation paid a visit to Beijing and Anhui Province from June 20 to 24, 2016. The delegation was led by Mr. Kiswell Dakamau, Director of Local Government Service of the Malawian Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. The delegation includes Mayor of Lilongwe, Deputy Mayor of Blantyre, Deputy Mayor of Zomba and Deputy Mayor of Mzuzu, etc. During the visit, CPAFFC Vice President Lin Yi and Deputy Mayor of Hefei Jiang Hong met with the delegation respectively. The group also visited Anhui Medical University, Anhui Agricultural University and Longcom Group agriculture demonstration base in Dawei County.

On June 22, CPAFFC Vice President Mme. Lin Yi met with the delegation of South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA) headed by its Vice Chairman Cllr. Kebitsamang Mpho Nawa.  Mme. Lin Yi welcomed the delegation to visit China and introduced the events on local government cooperation between China and South Africa, which were held by the CPAFFC in recent years. She also said that the CPAFFC will further strengthen the cooperation with SALGA to promote the cooperation between sister cities and deepen China-South Africa friendship. Cllr. Nawa said that SALGA is ready to deepen the exchanges with the CPAFFC to promote the pragmatic cooperation between the local governments of two countries. H.E.Ms. Dolana Msimang, Ambassador of South Africa to China attended the event.

Vice President Xie Yuan met with Mr.Enrique Antia Behrens, Governor of Maldonado Department of Uruguay and Mr. Fernando Lugris，Uruguay Ambassador to China on June 21. Vice President Xie Yuan extended his warm welcome to them for their visiting CPAFFC and made a brief introduction of CPAFFC and the situation of the friendly exchanges with Latin America countries including Uruguay. He said that CPAFFC would like to deepen the contact with the provinces and municipalities in Uruguay and the Embassy of Uruguay in China, strengthen the cooperation in various fields and promote the development of cause of the friendship between the people of the two countries. Governor Enrique Antia Behrens and Ambassador Fernando Lugris thanked Vice President Xie Yuan for taking his time to meet them and spoke highly of the work done by CPAFFC in the fields of the international cities and people-to-people friendship. They expressed that they would like to keep close contact with CPAFFC, expected to cooperate with it in the fields of the local exchanges, sports and cultural exchanges, tourism promotion and strengthened the friendship of the two countries’ people. Mr. Ji Yongjun, Deputy Director-General of the Department of American and Oceanian Affairs of CPAFFC, attended the meeting.

The fourth of the Poland-China Regional Forum was held in Warsaw on June, 20th. Chinese President Xi Jingping and Polish President Duda attended the opening ceremonies of Silk Road Forum and Poland-China Regional Cooperation & Business Fora. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of Silk Road Forum and Poland-China Regional Cooperation & Business Fora CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of Silk Road Forum and Poland-China Regional Cooperation & Business Fora About 170 representatives, including Mme. Li Xiaolin, President of CPAFFC, Mr. Lou Qinjian, Secretary of Communist Party of Shaanxi Provincial Committee, Mr. Wang Guosheng，Governor of Hubei Province, Mr. Yin Li, Governor of Sichuan Province, Mr. Sun Zhigang, Governor of Guizhou Province, Mr. Zhao Jiancai, Vice Governor of Henan Province, Mr. Tang Yijun, Acting Mayor of Ningbo Municipal Government, Mr. Song Jingwu, Vice President of CPAFFC and the Polish chief executives from 18 provinces and counties, attended the forum. Mr. Mateusz Morawiecki, the Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development, met with and held a banquet for the main guests from the both countries. CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the forum The forum's main topic was "Strengthening the logistic hubs and promoting regional pragmatic cooperation." It evolved around "infrastructure and traffic and communication", "the revitalization of old industrial base", and "cultivating regional innovation and growth." At last, they reached important consensuses regarding most of the topics.            The site of sub-theme of the Forum  CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin, said in her speech that regional cooperation was a driving force for the development of the China-Poland relations, as well as a new and crucial growth point for bilateral pragmatic and concrete cooperation. She expressed the hope that both sides could take the opportunity brought by the forum and actively carry out projects, thoroughly exploit the cooperation potential, raise the level of mutually beneficial cooperation and realize development together for the well-being of both nations. The Poland-China Regional Forum is an event which has been promoted by the authorities of both countries since 2013. It had been held three sessions respectively in Gdansk, Guangzhou and Lodz. At present, it has established 27 pairs of sister provinces/ cities relationship between China and Poland. The Forum was jointly organized by CPAFFC, Poland’s Ministry of Development and Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland Jan DZIEDZICZAK delivers a speech at the opening ceremony

Vice President Xie Yuan met with and held dinner in honor of the delegation of Association of the Units of Local Self-government of Macedonia (ZELS) led by Mayor Koce Trajanovski of Skopje on June 13th. Vice President Xie extended his warm welcome to the delegation. He introduced about freindship-city activities of CIFCA and its work in promoting exchanges at local and regional level between China and Macedonia. Xie noted that CIFCA will keep in close cooperation with ZELS on how to further promote China-Macedonia sub-national exchanges.  President Trajanovski appreciated the CIFCA’s hospitality. He hoped that these two organizations would sign a cooperation agreement in order to further promote bilateral cooperation in trade, culture, education, sports and other fields. Mayor Zoran Damjanovski of Kurmanovo and Mayor Nevzat Bejta of Gostivar,Vice Presidents of ZELS expressed the hope that CIFCA would help them to twin friendship cities with their counterparts in China so as to advance local and regional exchanges and cooperation. Vice President Xie invited President Trajanovski to lead a delegation to attend 2016 China International Friendship Cities Conference held in Chongqing, Sichuan province from November 9th to 11th. The issue of signing the cooperation agreement may be on the agenda. President Trajanovski said he would work to make the trip.

On June 7th, Vice President Hu Sishe hosted a luncheon in honor of  Mr. Mckibbin, Head of Civil Servants of Northern Ireland of the UK, and exchanged views on strengthening local cooperation between Northern Ireland and China. Mr. Hu Sishe welcomed Mr. Mckibbin to visitChina and the CPAFFC. He spoke highly of Northern Ireland’s cooperation with Liaoning Province in the fields of culture, education and science and technology, hope that Northern Ireland would share its successful experiences with Chinese localities in economic structural transformation. He said that the CPAFFC will further promote exchanges and cooperation between Northern Ireland and China in youth exchange, higher education and personnel training. Mr. Mckibbin appreciated the CPAFFC’s hospitality and long-term support to the cooperation between Northern Ireland and China and introduced the election and new government reform in Northern Ireland. He said that his visit to China is to prepare for First Minister and Deputy First Minister’s visit to Beijing, Shenyang and Shanghai in early December which is aimed to promote Northern Ireland’s practical cooperation with Liaoning Province in economic and trade, education, culture and agriculture.

Vice President Hu Sishe met the civil servants delegation of Jinju, the Republic of Korea, consisting of 40 members in the afternoon of June 1st .  Vice President Hu extended his warm welcome to the delegation. He said that the cooperation between China and the Republic of Korea went deep into various sectors of the society over the past years. The Republic of Korea exerted extensive influence in China in field of pop culture, electronic products, health care and pharmaceutical industry, and tourism. Last year, the CPAFFC, the Municipal People’s Government of Xi’an and the city government of Jinju co-organized the 8th session of “The Spring of Pomegranate Flower” Culture and Exchange Week in the city of Jinju. This year, the event was held in Xi’an during May 13th and 17th. The two cities signed the Agreement on the Establishment of the Friendship Cities between Xi’an and Jinju in the Opening Ceremony, which marked the up-leveled cooperation between the two cities. He hoped that the young people of the two cities as well as the two countries, including the young civil servants, would seize the opportunity, further deepening mutual understanding, promoting cooperation, establishing mutual trust and develop friendship.  Vice President Hu Sishe holds meeting with the delegation Mr. Ha Yong Mu, head of the delegation and Manager of Life Support Division of Jinju city government expressed his thanks to Vice President Hu Sishe. He made brief introduction to the delegation, which was the first civil servant delegation to China organized by the city government in the hope that the young civil servants would gain better understanding of China. Meanwhile, the delegation was also intended to learn about the development of social welfare in Beijing and explore cooperation possibilities in accord.  The delegation visited the History Exhibition of the CPAFFC afterwards.  Meeting in the spot

At the invitation of Mayor of Kazan, Ms. Zhang Ruoning, the deputy director general of European and Eurasian affairs department led a delegation to attend the 2016 World Executive Bureau Meeting of UCLG held in Kazan, Russia from May 25th to 27th . There are more than 300 delegates present at the meeting. The president of Republic of Tatarstan Minnikhanov and the co-president of UCLG, the mayor of Kazan Metshin attended the meeting and delivered a speech respectively.

Mr. Song Jingwu, Vice President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) met with Mr. Gérard Collomb, Mayor of municipality of Lyon in France and his delegation, and provided a banquet for them in CPAFFC on May 25. Vice President Song and Mayor Gérard Collomb had in-depth talks on how to strengthen the exchanges and cooperation of the local governments between China and France. Vice President Song also invited Mayor Gérard Collomb to attend the 5th Top Leaders Forum for Chinese and French Local Governments Cooperation to be held in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan province in October this year. Mayor Gérard Collomb thanked Vice President Song for inviting him and promised to dispatch a deputy mayor who is responsible for the international cooperation to attend the forum. Mayor Gérard Collomb’s visit in China is to attend the First Cultural Forum between China and France.

From May 19th to 20th, Vice President Xie Yuan led a delegation to visit the State of Minnesota in the United States. On May 20th, Vice President Xie Yuan had a meeting with Governor Mark Dayton in St. Paul, capital of Minnesota. VP Xie extended a formal invitation to Governor Dayton to attend the Fourth China-US Governors Forum to be held in Chengdu this August, and expressed the wishes that the governor will give continuous support in promoting the exchanges between the State of Minnesota and China’s local governments, provincial people’s congress and other fields. Governor Dayton addressed his great importance attached to the Minnesota’s relations with China and he had visited China for eight times. Though it looked very dim for him to visit China this year due to the presidential election, he will continue to promote mutual exchanges and seek an opportunity to pay another visit in 2017 or 2018.  On the same day, Vice President Xie Yuan attended the spring meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) where he gave a speech on China’s demographic situation and pension policies at NCSL’s invitation. He pointed out that China has established a multi-level pension service system based on households, communities and institutions with a combination of medicare and pension. In order to solve the issue of aging population, China has implemented the second-child policy across the country. In addition, China will lower its social security fees, postpone retiring age and open its pension service market in the future to fulfill the diversified requests by the elderly. NCSL’s President, Utah Senate President Pro Tempore Curtis Bramble thanked VP Xie’s attending the meeting and making a speech. Sen. Bramble said that under the CPAFFC’s support, the two organizations have enjoyed more and more cooperation and mutual visits. The First China-U.S. Sub-national Legislatures Cooperation Forum which CPAFFC is going to host in Honolulu, Hawaii, in June this year will become an important platform for cooperation between the two countries’ subnational legislatures. The NCSL will help promote further exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. During the visit, VP Xie also met with Utah Senator Sandy Pappas, Utah House Majority Leader, Representative Joyce Peppin and seven other Utah legislators, as well as Mrs. Barbara Harrison, former president of the US-China People’s Friendship Association, and the organization’s Minnesota Chairman Ralph Beha.