The Yellow River Estuary International Friendly Cities Conference for Dialogue and Exchange was inaugurated in Dongying, China’s Shandong Province on May 15. About 100 representatives from domestic and foreign cities, business associations, relevant departments and enterprises attended the meeting.

Chen Bichang, mayor of Dongying City, said in his speech that he hoped that through this conference, Dongying could build closer friendly relations with international sister cities and estuarine cities at home and abroad, strengthen industrial and economic cooperation in a wider range of fields, promote more effective wetland ecological protection, expand a higher level of connectivity, and promote deeper cultural exchanges.

At the meeting, the Memorandum of Establishing International Friendly and Cooperative Relationship between Libreville & Dongying and the Letter of Intent of Establishing International Friendly and Cooperative Relationship between Livorno & Dongying were signed. The city of Libreville in Gabon actively responded to and signed the Dongying Initiative on Cooperation and Development of World Estuarine Cities.

Representatives from Dongying City of Shandong Province, Libreville City of Gabon, Yingkou City of Liaoning Province, Livorno Province of Italy, Niigata City of Japan, Bavaria State of Germany and other international sister cities and estuarine cities made city promotion and held working meetings respectively, having in-depth exchanges on the cooperation and mutual development of international sister cities and estuarine cities in the world.

"The signing of two documents today between Libreville and Dongying marks a spectacular moment for Libreville." said Edouard NZIENGUI NZIENGUI, fourth vice mayor of Libreville, Gabon. “We also hope to strengthen cooperation with Dongying in health care, education, culture and other fields.”