On November 23, the 3rd China-Italy Sister City Cooperation Dialogue was held online. Under the theme of "Furthering Sister City Cooperation for Mutually-Beneficial Development", the attendants reviewed the achievements of China-Italy sister city cooperation in the past, and jointly discussed new opportunities for China-Italy cultural cooperation. Mr. LI Guanding, Vice Mayor of Ningbo, and Mr. Cristiano Maggipinto, Foreign Affairs Consultant for Mayor of Florence, delivered video speeches.
Mr. YAN Dong, Vice President of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), said that China and Italy had established 86 pairs of sister provinces, states and sister cities, and had conducted fruitful exchanges and cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, culture, tourism and so on. CPAFFC would focus on practical cooperation, support people-to-people exchanges and uphold the spirit of innovation, so as to further China-Italy sister city cooperation in the fields of digital economy, green energy, ecological conservation and so on, give full play to the role of Chinese and Italian local governments as a bridge of exchanges, and foster the stable and long-term development of bilateral friendly relations.
Mr. Federico Roberto Antonelli, Representative of the Ambassador of Italy to China and Cultural Counselor of the Embassy of Italy in China, said that this year marked the China-Italy Year of Culture and Tourism. Both sides had overcome the challenges of the epidemic and held a series of cultural exchange events in Florence, Beijing, Hong Kong and so on, thereby strengthening bilateral cultural exchanges. In the future, the Embassy of Italy in China would spare no efforts to support exchange events and continue to foster mutual learning of civilizations and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
Mr. LI Guanding, Vice Mayor of Ningbo, said that Italy had been Ningbo's important partner of trade and investment for a long time. In recent years, Ningbo had established friendly relations successively with Florence, Verona and Piedmont, and conducted close exchanges in the fields of economy and trade, culture, tourism and so on. In 2014, co-witnessed by prime ministers of both countries, the Sino-Italy Ningbo Ecological Park was officially set in Ningbo. In 2019, Italy became the 1st guest country of honor of the China (Ningbo) Cultural Industries Fair. Earlier this week, Ningbo held the Ningbo-Italy Cultural Week, consisting of a series of activities. Vice Mayor LI Guanding hoped that in the future, both sides would further exchanges and cooperation between China-Italy sister cities, including deepening economic and trade cooperation, promoting people-to-people exchanges, and improving cooperation mechanism.
The China-Italy Sister City Cooperation Dialogue has been held by the two countries in turn since 2017. The Dialogue held this time was hosted by CPAFFC, and the attendants were representatives from Chinese and Italian Embassies, sister provinces and cities, and friendly organizations.
