A special promotion event for Hubei Province which was hard hit by COVID-19, was held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 12, in Beijing, in a bid to present a new Hubei that has emerged stronger from the difficulties, and build new bridges connecting it to the world.
Kiichiro Sato, mayor of Oita City, Japan, gave a speech at the event via video.
Kiichiro Sato, mayor of Oita City, Japan, gave a speech at the event via video.
"I am very happy to participate in this event from a distance, and I sincerely wish it a complete success, " Kiichiro Sato, mayor of Oita City in Japan, expressed his gratitude and blessings to Wuhan through a video at the special event held by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 12, in Beijing. He gave the speech as a representative of Wuhan’s sister cities.
Oita is the first international city established sister-city relationship with Wuhan. This year marks the 42nd anniversary of the establishment of friendship between the two cities. In the past decades, the two have initiated a win-win cooperation mechanism based on mutual understanding, friendship and peace, with exchanges in the fields of environmental protection, economy, agriculture, culture and art, education and sports, becoming a model among sister cities, the mayor said.
In recent years, the two cities have vigorously conducted exchanges in the field of environmental protection, effectively fulfilled the memorandum of cooperation on environmental protection, and actively promoted cooperative projects relating to air pollution control and waste sorting.
In the future, it is hoped that through exchanges and substantial cooperation in the field of environmental protection and other fields, the cooperation between the two cities will be advanced and achieve a mutual prosperity and shared development, he added.
During the COVID-19 epidemic period, many citizens of Oita were very concerned about their friends in Wuhan and wanted to do something for the city. So they donated 30,000 facial masks to Wuhan with best wishes that people in the city could go back to normal life as soon as possible. The friendship between the two cities went a trending topic on internet at that time.
Later on, the epidemic broke out in Oita. Wuhan sent out 53,000 facial masks when medical supplies were in serious shortage in the Japanese city. “Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my sincere gratitude once again to Wuhan for the support at Oita’s most difficult time,” the mayor appreciated.
The people of Wuhan united together to achieve decisive results in the fight against the epidemic and economic recovery. “I believe Wuhan, which has risen from COVID-19 ashes, will accelerate its development in the future,” he said, adding that Oita will continue to deepen friendly exchanges with Wuhan, share development opportunities and further strengthen bilateral cooperation.
- Kiichiro Sato, mayor of Oita City, Japan