Valley
KMC mayor, deputy mayor off to China
Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s (KMC) Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya and Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadgi have left for China on Monday to attend the ‘China International Friendship City Conference 2018’ on November 14 and 16.Anup Ojha
Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Mayor Bidya Sunder Shakya and Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadgi have left for China on Monday to attend the ‘China International Friendship City Conference 2018’ on November 14 and 16.
The conference starting in Wuhan Hubei Province has the theme ‘Sharing Development Opportunities and Deepening Win-Win Co-operation’ between the sister metropolitan cities.
The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and China International Friendship City Association (CIFCA) in Lhasa are jointly organising the conference.
The CPAFFC and CIFCA have also jointly announced to provide an award for the friendship cities that have made a great contribution for conducting friendly exchanges and cooperation with China.
In its invitation letter sent by the People’s Government of Lhasa, the province has announced KMC being nominated for ‘Outstanding Foreign Friendship city of Tibet Autonomous Region to compete for the awards’ under CPAFC and CIFCA category.
KMC and the Chengdu City in China’s Sichuan province had established sister-city relationship in December 2016. KMC’s former Chief Executive Officer Rudra Singh Tamang and Communist Party of China Secretary and former mayor of Chengdu Tang Liangzhi had signed the Memorandum of Understanding.
The establishment of sister-city relationship with Chengdu was proposed during the visit of the then deputy prime minister and foreign minister Kamal Thapa in Chengdu in 2015.
Delegates from government and international organisations will attend the conference and will discuss on how to build modern, international and eco-friendly cities, and will discuss ways for the prosperity and development of friendship cities.
Speaking to journalists at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Mayor Shakya said the visit would be beneficial for the metropolis. The mayor handed his official duties to Ward-1 Chairperson Bharat Lal Shrestha during his absence.
As per the schedule, Mayor Shakya and his deputy will meet with representatives of Sichuan Province in Chengdu on Monday. The next day they meet with representatives of Lhasa Municipality and then travel to Wuhan province to attend the conference.
KMC’s International Relation Secretariat says, till the date the KMC has formal sister city relationships with five Chinese cities - Xi’an, Lhasa, Shenzhen, Lanzhou and Chengdu - to facilitate tourism promotion, educational exchange, urban development planning, technological sharing, agricultural and medicinal technologies.
KMC has expanded its 15 sister cities in a half a dozen countries of the world such as United States of America, Japan, Belarus, Myanmar, Korea and India.