Is your hometown Guangzhou's sister city? Guangzhou held a grand meeting from Oct 31 to Nov 1 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its sister city network development and shed light into how this network works.

[Photo\Zhang Yijian, Nanfang Plus]

One hundred and ten overseas representatives from 35 cities of 26 countries and officials from Chinese central, provincial and municipal governments presented at the meeting. Mayors of Guangzhou and its sister cities as well as members of various joint projects shared their stories of partnership and the possibilities they saw for future cooperation.

Fukuoka of Japan twinned with Guangzhou in May 1979 as Guangzhou's first international sister city. The city signed an MoU on strengthening sister-city relations with Guangzhou at the opening ceremony.

Takashima Soichiro, mayor of Fukuoka, said Guangzhou and Fukuoka have seen close government visits and people-to-people exchanges over the past 40 year, which contributed to the communication and cooperation in such fields as innovation and urban development.

[Photo\Dong Tianjian, Nanfang Daily]

"A few days ago, Fukuoka held an event for innovation and had a Guangzhou company display their autonomous aerial vehicle and show us the possibility for urban air mobility," he said, "the exhibition deepened our citizens' understanding of innovation while bringing business opportunities in a new sector. I believe cooperation in sectors like this will become more vital between cities and cities."

Apart from Fukuoka, Guangzhou signed new cooperative agreements with four international cities including Brazzaville of Republic of the Congo, Dhofar of Oman, Edinburgh of UK and Busan of South Korean. While Guangzhou enterprises signed MoU with enterprises of the sister & friendship city to push forward partnership in airport and sport event.

Thus far, Guangzhou has forged friendship with 81 cities of 56 countries and expects to increase the number to more than 100 by 2021. The friendly relationship and the cooperative mechanism between Guangzhou and these cities have tightened cooperation in various fields. Now Guangzhou owns 40 pairs of sister communities, 51 sister ports, 81 sister schools and 12 sister library.

[Photo/Zheng Yijian, Nanfang Plus]

An annual conference of the Alliance of Guangzhou International Sister-City Universities was also held during the grand meeting, aiming to highlight the outcomes of cooperation between universities and jointly discuss on three major topics, that is, sustainable development, culture and tourism and innovation.

Per-Olof Brehmer, deputy vice-chancellor and professor of Linkoping University, said the university already has various joint projects with Guangzhou. "For example, we organize joint research with Guangzhou University on waste disposal and how we can turn the waste into resources. We are also expanding partnership with other universities in Guangzhou and supporting teacher training here on sustainable development."

Four universities were announced as new members of the alliance at the conference, adding up the number of its members to 11. The alliance was formed in 2018 and now its member includes Guangzhou University, University of Coimbra, Linkoping University, University of Padova, University of Tampere, Western Sydney University, Guangzhou Medical University, Middle East Technical University, Incheon National University, and the University of the West of England.

[Photo\Zheng Yijian,Nanfang Plus]

The meeting also including a partnering session as well as tours to the Canton Fair and cultural spots in Guangzhou, aiming to create chances for cities to gain more knowledge about each other and explore business opportunities in new sectors.