Vitebsk and Jinan plan to further develop joint economic, scientific and cultural cooperation

The cities have had twin city relations since 2009, and in 2014, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Vitebsk City Executive Committee and the Jinan Municipal Government.

Throughout the years, relations between the twin cities have been developing in economics, education, culture, tourism, and other areas of life. The new meeting of partners was also dedicated to the prospects of cooperation in all selected areas.

Thanking the Chinese delegation, led by the Vice Mayor of Jinan, Mr. Wang Yicai, for accepting the invitation, the Chairman of the City Executive Committee, Viktor Nikolaikin, noted that Vitebsk's relations with the PRC have intensified recently. One indicator is the foreign trade turnover between our city and China, which ranks second after Russia (five years ago, it was 10th). Last year, it amounted to over one hundred million US dollars.

— Perhaps the turnover is not that large for China, but it has increased compared to the previous year, which means there is potential for its further growth, — emphasized Viktor Pavlovich.

Representatives and heads of administrative units of the cities, structural management divisions, and business circles took part in the partner meeting. And Viktor Nikolaikin expressed hope that with established contacts, fruitful work lies ahead for everyone. In particular, he confirmed that Vitebsk is ready to consider various proposals from the Chinese side and forms of cooperation for the creation of a high-tech park.

By the way, according to the plan, this is a future joint venture "Vitebsk Silicon Valley — Park of Information and Innovation Technologies." The main focus will be on the IT sector, information and industrial programming, and in the second stage, the park may become an industrial zone...

Viktor Nikolaikin also presented Vitebsk as a city open to cooperation in the fields of culture, education, healthcare, and sports, emphasizing that each relevant institution in Vitebsk and Jinan can build bridges among themselves independently and elevate these contacts to a higher level.

The head of the delegation from Jinan, Wang Yicai, acquainted the leadership of Vitebsk with reciprocal proposals, namely, that Jinan can offer free education to Belarusian schoolchildren from twin cities, with a scholarship (excluding travel and accommodation), delegations to the annual "City of Springs" festival, and athletes to the All-China Olympiad. Chinese partners are ready to consider new areas of cooperation.

After the official reception, the guests visited Secondary School No. 44, where children have been studying the Chinese language, culture, and traditions of this country since 2002, and visited the art and local history museums.

Nataliya Krupitsa. Photos by Oleg Klimovich. "Vitbichi".