On 12th July, Acting Consul General Fan Yingjie attended Liverpool China Partnership Relaunch Networking Reception and celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the Liverpool-Shanghai Sister City relations. Consul Lyu Xiaomei accompanied him.
In his speech, Acting Consul General Fan praised Liverpool China Partnership for its outstanding contribution to promoting Liverpool's friendly cooperation with China since its establishment in 2015 and congratulated Liverpool on its achievements in operation with China during recent years. He pointed out that whilst continuously consolidating its sister city relationship with Shanghai for the past 20 years, Liverpool had established links with many other Chinese cities including Tianjin, Qingdao and Xi'an, etc. It had attracted many investment projects from China and helped local companies to expand the Chinese market. XJTLU, a partnership between the University of Liverpool and Xi'an Jiaotong University, has become a flagship project for Sino-British joint degree programmes. He said that the Consulate General was delighted to see organisations such as China forums, Sino-British chambers of commerce and Sino-British partnerships being established one after another across North England, which are playing an important role in integrating local resources, strengthening cooperation with China, enhancing local influence in China and attracting more Chinese tourists and enterprises to come to the area. China and Britain are natural partners of the "Road and Belt" initiative and Sino-British cooperation has great potential. The Consulate General will continue to actively assist Liverpool to expand its cooperation with China in depth and width.
Cllr Gary Millar, Vice Mayor of Liverpool, thanked the Consulate General for its support. He reviewed how much Liverpool has gained in expanding exchange with China and opening up the Chinese market and encouraged local enterprises to actively become partners with China to share its development dividend with the help of the Chinese Consulate General in Manchester.
Nearly a hundred representatives from Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Isle and Man Chamber of Commerce, enterprises and universities attended the event.
