Fu Lei leads Kaifeng delegation to visit Greece

On the morning of July 29, 2019, Fu Lei, member of the Standing Committee of the Kaifeng Municipal Party committee and executive vice mayor of China, led a delegation to visit the Enterprise Greece in Athens. Mr. Elias Eliades, vice minister, cordially met with the delegation of Kaifeng City of China.

          Mr. Fu presented the Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Zhuxian Town woodcut pictures to Mr. Eliades.

Elias Eliades said that Greece and China are both ancient civilizations, and bilateral relations have been developing soundly. Greece is an important gateway connecting Europe, Asia and Africa. Under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the cooperation between China's COSCO and Piraeus port has achieved rich fruits. Now Greece's new government, led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitotakis, is stepping up economic recovery and foreign cooperation. We look forward to increasing cooperation with China and local governments in the fields of culture, tourism and economic cooperation. On behalf of Enterprise Greece, I welcome you and your team.

The head of the Kaifeng delegation, Fu Lei said that Kaifeng is a famous historical and cultural city in China and an ancient capital of eight dynasties with a history of 4100 years. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the population of Kaifeng reached more than 1.5 million, which was the largest city in the world at that time. Kaifeng City was one of the important nodes of the ancient Silk Road in history.

Fu Lei introduced that  In July 24th, the Belt and Road Promotion Conference was held by Henan provincial government, and thoroughly implemented the important exposition of general secretary Xi Jinping of the CPC on opening to the outside world, guided by the new development concept and deeply integrated into the "belt and road" construction. The belt and road is a best bond, we hope to establish more extensive ties with Greece and to carry out cultural exchanges and economic cooperation.I sincerely invite you and your team to visit Kaifeng and Henan.

The atmosphere of the talks between the two sides was very good. The scheduled 40 minute meeting lasted for an hour and a half.

Zhao Wenchao,the researcher and executive chairman of the Euro Chinese tCenter for Research and Developmen (eccrd) attended the meeting.

At the meeting of friendly cooperation between the local governments of China and Greece held on the eve of the first belt and road Cooperation Summit Forum, it was Zhao who promoted the signing of three Memo on the conclusion of international friendly cities between Kaifeng City (including Lancao county) and Greece local goverments, including the memo of promoting the construction of the China-Greek Cultural Park project between the Ministry of Economic and Development of Greece and the local government of Kaifeng City.

Greek P.M. Alexis Tsipras and Li Xiaolin, President of the CPAFF, who witnessed the signing of the mome.

After the signing, Kaifeng daily, the official newspaper of the Kaifeng Municipal Committee,CPC, made a great report on the front page on the theme "Yellow River civilization embracing the Aegean civilization". The report shows that "a lot of pre-work" was done before the signing. Ji Bingwei, Secretary of Kaifeng Municipal Party committee, Houhong, the mayor, Cai Songtao, the Standing Committee of Kaifeng Municipal Committee and Secretary of Lancao County Committee, they attached great importance to and gave guidance personally.

On May 16th, 2017, Henan Daily, the party newspaper of the CPC ,Henan Provincial Committee, published a report on the signing of the above project in the "important news" edition. China People's network, CPC news network, China International Radio Station, CNR News of China（ www.cnr.cn ）More than 30 central media, including China development observation, official website of the State Council Development Research Center, and many Chinese and foreign portals have made a lot of sustained reports on this.

Houhong visited Greece on Nov. 19, 2018.

According to the report of Kaifeng daily on Nov. 20, 2018, the visit purpose is in order to thoroughly implement the spirit of a series of important speeches by General Secretary Xi Jinping on promoting opening up to the outside world, actively integrate and practically promote the construction of the belt and road, and deepen Kaifeng's opening-up to the outside world.

Subsequently, the official website of Henan provincial government reprinted the above news. During Hou Hong's visit to Greece, she said that China and Greece, as an important representative of eastern and Western civilizations, are creating a better future for China Greece comprehensive strategic partnership. China and Greece make full use of the forum of ancient civilizations forum to promote exchanges and dialogues among civilizations and expand practical cooperation.

It should be pointed out that the planner of the Forum on ancient civilizations is also eccrd, and the executive chairman Zhao Wenchao has planned this project. The project was later established under the initiative of the foreign ministries of Greece and China, and the forum has become an important platform for strengthening cooperation among ancient countries of global civilization. As early as 2005, Zhao Wenchao studied China's transformation from agriculture to industrialization and planned the lotus Lankao experiment. In April 1, 2009, the project won the inspection of Xi Jinping personally. Xi Jinping heard a special report on the experimental plot of the pilot village.

Fulei leads Kaifeng delegation to visit Greece, this is another encounter and embrace between Aegean civilization and Yellow River civilization. We sincerely hope that both sides will implement the documents signed in 2017 as soon as possible, accelerate the construction of the China-Greece Cultural Park and lay the foundation for China Greece friendship and the belt and road construction. Zhao said at the meeting.

Fulei said the project is of great significance. Kaifeng welcomes the site selection of the project.

All parties reached a high consensus on promoting the construction of the project as soon as possible.