On the afternoon of June 21, 2022 Fuzhou International Friendship Cities Cultural Festival was held in a hybrid form integrating online and in-person attendance. H.E. Liu Yantao, China’s Ambassador to Cyprus, Mr. Luo Guansheng, Vice President of Fujian Provincial People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Mr. Huang Jianxiong, Deputy Mayor of Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government, Ms. Yan Ping, Vice Chairwoman of the CPPCC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, Chairwoman of Fuzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Mr. Wang Zonghua, Principal of Minjiang University, Mr. Xu Qiyuan, Chairman of Mindu Culture Research Council, attended the opening ceremony. Ms. Shiroma Mikiko, Mayor of Naha, Japan, Mr. Dário Saadi, Mayor of Campinas, Brazil, Mr. Ubraj Narine, Mayor of Georgetown, Guyana, Mr. Piotr Jedlinski, Mayor of Koszalin, Poland, Mr. Sergey Shelest, Mayor of Omsk, Russia, Mr. Rick Blangiardi, Mayor of Honolulu, the US, Mr. Jeong Hyun-Bok, Mayor of Gwangyang, the ROK, Mr. Clarence Ting Ing Horh, Chairman of Sibu Municipal Council, Malaysia, Mr. Constantinos Yiorkadjis, Mayor of Nicosia, Cyprus, Mr. Rolando Alexis Lee, Mayor of Colon, Panama, Mr. Nguyen Huu Nha, Vice Chairman of Ha Long City People’s Committee, Vietnam, and Ms. Aisha Abubakar, Chief Officer for Culture, County Government of Mombasa, Kenya, participated via video link or sent video messages.
At the opening ceremony, witnessed by Ambassador Liu Yantao and mayors of Fuzhou international friendship cities, Deputy Mayor Huang Jianxiong and Mayor Yiorkadjis, on behalf of Fuzhou and Nicosia respectively, signed the Letter of Intent for the Establishment of Friendship City Relationship between the two cities.
In their speeches, mayors of Fuzhou’s international friendship cities expressed their thanks to and admiration for Fuzhou’s effort to hold this cultural festival, and hoped to join future activities in person to feel the vibrations.
Mayors of Naha, Georgetown and Colon, Vice Chairman of Ha Long City People’s Committee, and the representative of County Government of Mombasa introduced their own cultural and tourism resources, as well as foreign exchanges, in their speeches. They also looked forward to taking this opportunity to make new friends, know more about other cities and continuously expand exchanges on a broader scale.
Mayors of Campinas, Omsk and Gwangyang shared their exchanges with Fuzhou in recent years. They noted that they will learn about cultural traditions in different places and the common value in different city cultures through this festival. They hoped to make joint efforts to achieve common development and prosperity. Mayors of Koszalin, Honolulu and Sibu Municipal Council said in their video messages that the resilience and strength of peoples from different cities have been encouraging in the face of the pandemic, and their cooperation and partnership with Fuzhou will bring more benefits for local people.
Ambassador Liu Yantao sent his congratulations on the opening of the cultural festival, and expressed his pleasure to attend this activity and witness the signing ceremony between Fuzhou and Nicosia. He hoped that the two cities can work together to achieve cooperation and common prosperity based on mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. As Fuzhou, with its Three Lanes and Seven Alleys Historical District, and Nicosia, with its thousand-year-old city walls, are both cities of great cultural heritage, the Fuzhou-Nicosia cooperation will provide precious confidence and strength for creating the city-to-city and country-to-country relations that have more vitality, warmth and resilience. It would also inject new impetus into the development of strategic partnership and local cooperation between China and Cyprus, and contribute to Euro-China dialogues and cooperation.
In his speech, Mayor Yiorkadjis introduced his city and pointed out that the signing of the Letter of Intent for the Establishment of Friendship City Relationship is the result of friendship and cooperation between the two cities. He hoped to continue mutually beneficial cooperation with Fuzhou in scientific research, innovation, culture and other fields.
Entrusted by Mr. Wu Xiande, Mayor of Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government, Deputy Mayor Huang Jianxiong expressed his welcome and thanks to mayors and representatives of Fuzhou friendship cities who attended the opening ceremony. He hoped that friendship cities can take this cultural festival as an opportunity to strengthen cultural and people-to-people exchanges, expand cooperation fields, advance openness and win-win outcome and make efforts to realize fruitful achievement in exchanges and cooperation, so as to jointly build warmer, deeper and broader friendship city relations. In the meantime, Deputy Mayor Huang Jianxiong expected that Fuzhou and Nicosia will take the signing as a new starting point to bolster exchanges and cooperation, and write new chapters for friendly exchanges and common development of the two cities.
At the end of the opening ceremony, Deputy Mayor Huang Jianxiong launched the Photo Exhibition Featuring 2022 Fuzhou International Friendship Cities Cultural Festival with other guests. The photo exhibition includes offline and online VR exhibitions, displaying 138 pictures, calligraphy works and paintings with characteristic cultural elements from the cities of Fuzhou, Nanping and Ningde, as well as their international friendship cities.
This was the second year that Fuzhou has held its International Friendship Cities Cultural Festival, which aims to give full play to the role of Fuzhou international friendship cities as a platform, so as to improve domestic and foreign people’s awareness and recognition of Fuzhou’s Mindu Culture, and promote mutual learning and inclusive development of cultures among international friendship cities, and build more consensus to enhance people-to-people bonds. The cities of Nanping and Ningde from the Northeast Fujian Collaborative Development Zone were also invited to participate in this event.
The links for the online photo exhibition are as follows:
https://view.vgoyun.com/#/panoview/65868 (in Chinese)
https://view.vgoyun.com/#/panoview/65875 (in English)
Source：International Exchanges Section
