On August 6th, a delegation of 22 people, led by Shiroki Nobutaka, President of the Hokkaido Japan-China Friendship Association, visited Shenyang. Chen Shuangwei, Director of Shenyang Foreign Affairs Office, met with the delegation and had in-depth exchanges on further deepening practical cooperation between Shenyang and Hokkaido in various fields.

Chen Shuangwei stated that Shenyang is the central city of Northeast China, an advanced equipment manufacturing base, and a national historical and cultural city. Currently, Shenyang is thoroughly implementing the important speeches and instructions of President Xi Jinping on the comprehensive revitalization of Northeast China and Liaoning, targeting at the overall goal of building a national central city, accelerating the construction of an international central city in Northeast Asia, and continuously showing an upward trend in economic and social development. Shenyang attaches great importance to developing friendly local relations with Japan and Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, is the first overseas sister city of Shenyang. Next year, we will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the sister city relationship between the two cities, which shows enormous potential for cooperation and exchange. We hope that this visit to Shenyang will provide an opportunity for both parties to deepen cooperation in areas such as energy conservation and environmental protection, health care and elderly care, culture and tourism, agricultural technology, and the ice and snow industry, and build a platform for mutual learning, mutual benefit, and win-win exchange and cooperation. Efforts can be made to establish a regular communication mechanism, actively enhance cultural exchanges, promote traditional friendship and cooperation in various fields such as culture, tourism, education, sports, and youth exchange, so as to make local contribution to the consolidation of the public opinion foundation of China Japan friendship.

Shiroki Nobutaka said that during his visit to Shenyang, he fully felt the achievements of Shenyang's economic and social development and the rapid changes in the city, and learned a lot from it. In the future, he will be more committed to promote the development of friendly relations between China and Japan, and make every effort to promote friendly cooperation between Shenyang and Hokkaido, especially with sister city Sapporo, and work together to create a better future of win-win cooperation between both sides.

Hokkaido Japan-China Friendship Association was founded on June 15, 1964. With the aim of promoting China Japan friendship and practical exchanges through non-governmental efforts, the Association is committed to enhancing mutual understanding between the two peoples and promoting continuous and in-depth development of friendly and cooperative relationship through holding exchange activities, promoting personnel exchanges, and carrying out exchange of overseas students, etc.