The Global Mayors Dialogue in Nanning aims to bring cities across China and ASEAN even closer together, going beyond traditional sister city status. Our Zheng Songwu brings us this preview.
Attendees including government officials, experts and scholars from seven Asian countries have gathered in Nanning to layout a roadmap for municipal cooperation. Officials from China and ASEAN say the two parties are committed to further developing sister city relations.
The Nanning Initiative was also released during a dialogue session, which calls for deepening friendly exchanges between cities, economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. Relevant parties attending the gathering signed off on 14 projects, valued at four million U.S. dollars. The projects include investments in logistics and transportation, education, and tourism.
AHMAD PHADIL ISMAIL Consul General Consulate General of Malaysia "In terms of the city to city relationship, it will definitely help the national strategy starting with the people to people exchanges, and also cultural exchange between cities. So we hope that more cities from Malaysia will be involved in such initiative by the Chinese government through Guangxi."
ATHSAPHANGTHONG SIPHANDONE Governor of Vientiane, Laos "In the future, we have many cooperation closely together for the Laos, China, for the people from the Laos and people from the China to work and act together closely. It's something like that."
Official data shows that the total trade value between China and ASEAN in 2024 was over 980 billion dollars, accounting for 15.9 percent of China's total international trade.
The two sides have been each other's largest trading partners for five consecutive years, and China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner for fifteen consecutive years.
ZHENG SONGWU Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region "As the fifth largest economy worldwide, ASEAN has contributed to the development of the world through its stable economic growth. The Nanning Initiative has taken the cooperation between China and ASEAN to a new level that helps build an even closer China-ASEAN community. Zheng Songwu, CGTN, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region."