Vice Mayor of Nanjing Gave an Interview to ASEAN Journalists

On 24 October 2016, the ASEAN media delegation on a reporting trip to China on the theme of “Jointly Building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road” visited Nanjing and held an interview with Vice Mayor Huang Lan.

Mr. Huang Lan made a briefing on the social-economic development of the city, its position in the One Belt One Road, and status and prospects of its cooperation with ASEAN countries. He cited that Nanjing, as a nodal point on the One Belt and One Road and a megalopolis conveniently located in the Yangtze River Delta, is ancient in the history of opening to the outside world, advanced in science, technology, and education and strong in industry and commerce. All these advantages helped lay a solid foundation of its full engagement in the Belt and Road construction. Nanjing has carried out extensive and fruitful cooperation with Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand in the fields such as metallurgy, chemical industry, energy, real estate development, machine building, intelligent equipment, software, and information technology.

Mr. Huang said, Nanjing has been carrying out close people-to-people exchanges with ASEAN countries. Since 2008, Nanjing has sister-city relations with Malacca of Malaysia, Bandar Seri Begawan of Brunei and Semarang of Indonesia. In the area of education, Nanjing is now hosting students from nine ASEAN countries. It has held educational forums with Singapore and Malaysia, and offered scholarships to ASEAN students to attract more of them to study in the city.

The journalists paid special attention to Nanjing’s unique advantages in the Belt and Road construction and its plans of operation with ASEAN in production capacity and education. In answering their questions, the vice mayor and the officials attended interview said that Nanjing will further explore its advantages to boost its cooperation with ASEAN countries in the trend of Belt and Road construction.