On May 20, Mr.Luo Qiang, Deputy Secretary of CPC Chengdu Committee and Mayor of Chengdu, met with Mr. Tom Tate, Mayor of Gold Coast at Tianfu New City Conference Center. They jointly signed an Agreement on Establishing Sister City Relations between Chengdu and Gold Coast. This meant Gold Coast City of Australia formally became Chengdu's 36th international Sister City.

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This was the 6th time that Mr. Tate has led a delegation to Chengdu. Before the signing of the agreement, he made a unique gesture of "devotion." To express his warm affection for Chengdu, Mayor Tate, holding up his right hand amusingly, made a popular on-line "hand on heart" gesture. In this way, the Mayor announced : "Chengdu, I Love You!" During the interview session with journalists, he expressed his view that the Chengdu-Gold Coast relationship is like relationship between giant panda and koala. The Mayor was also full of expectation that this Gold Coast-Chengdu friendly collaboration would become an exemplar of Sino-Australia exchanges and collaboration.

"In my opinion, the most precious assets of Gold Coast and Chengdu are our people-to-people friendships," from Tate's perspective, increasing people-to-people interactions between the two sides are gathering momentum, promoting the long-term development of tourism. In the meantime, two-way education and medical exchanges and collaboration have generated fruitful outcomes.

In the field of education, Chengdu City and Gold Coast City co-hosted a series of exchanges events including- China Chengdu-Australia Gold Coast Panda · Koala Sculpture Design Competition and Queensland Cup "Best of Chengdu" Teen Video Contest. A framework agreement for education collaboration was also signed between the two sides, furthering two-way youth friendly exchange visits and deepening Chengdu -Gold Coast friendship. At the same time, West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sichuan Normal University and Chengdu Sport Institute have each forged long-term cooperative relationships with Australian Griffith University. "It is my sincere hope that Chengdu-Gold Coast friendship will continuously develop through interactive exchanges among young students. I am confident of the benefits from this, " said Tate.

In the field of medicine, Olymvax Biopharmaceuticals Inc collaborated with the Griffith University. The two sides co-established "The Joint Laboratory of Vaccine Development," co-dedicated to Group A streptococcus vaccine-GAS vaccine project collaboration. "I am most proud of the ongoing Gold Coast –Chengdu medical research collaboration outcomes. " According to Mayor Tate, Gold Coast City is home to world –leading medical R&D institutions and Chengdu houses its own highly competent R&D institutions and pharmaceutical companies. In particular, Chengdu enjoys excellent capacity for the transformation of science and technology initiatives into practical applications. "With the unfolding of this bilateral collaboration, the original transformation time for vaccine achievements that were expected to take 10 years will be reduced to 3 years, saving 7 years time. Perhaps, this will save tens of thousands of people's life or alleviate patients' pain, a significant achievement indeed."

The Gold Coast –Chengdu Sister City relationship has been forged building on the sound basis of friendly and cooperative relationship. Mayor Tate was deeply gratified with that. "We sincerely hope that through our joint efforts, we could shape Gold Coast –Chengdu friendly relationship to stand as an exemplar of Sino-Australian local government exchanges."

On the occasion of Chengdu Asian Panda Food Festival, Mayor Tate also mentioned the Chengdu culinary item that impressed him most. "Of course, it was Chengdu hotpot." In the meantime, he also spoke highly of Chengdu's time-honored historic and cultural atmosphere. 

In addition, Chengdu's urban plan also left the Mayor with a deep impression. "I learned that Chengdu's 2nd airport is under construction. Following its completion, Chengdu will become only the 3rd Chinese city having duel airports after Beijing and Shanghai. This will be very advantageous for Chengdu's development."

Looking forward to future collaboration, Mayor Tate maintained that education and medical care should also be collaboration priorities. In the meantime, he was looking forward to the opening of Gold Coast –Chengdu direct air route, furthering two-way friendly exchanges and collaboration between the two sides. 

It's well worth mentioning that Mayor Tate expects to set up a "koala garden" in Chengdu. "Gold Coast has a koala conservation and research center and we are very willing to send koalas as a gift to Chengdu. Of course, we will need to plant eucalyptus in Chengdu to provide food for the koala."

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A pair of "friends" who share so many similarities 

Chengdu and Gold Coast have conducted frequent interactive exchanges. Chengdu-Gold Coast friendly and cooperative relationship was established in September, 2016, launching a series of collaboration in the areas of education, economic issues and trade, innovation and entrepreneurship. This time, "giant panda" joined hands with "koala!" The establishment of the Chengdu-Gold Coast Sister City Relationship is bound to enliven Chengdu-Gold Coast sentiment and open up new a brilliant chapter for bilateral collaboration!

来源:国际蓉