On October 26, Guiyang and Sumy, Ukraine held a video conference to exchange their experience in economic and social development and sign a letter of intent on establishing sister city relationship. Ma Ningyu, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Guiyang Municipal Committee and Acting Mayor of Guiyang, and Oleksandr Lysenko, Mayor of Sumy delivered speeches. Dmytro Kamkov, Consul General of Ukraine in Guangzhou, was present.
Liu Lan, Vice Mayor of Guiyang, chaired the conference. Oleh Rieznik, Secretary of the Sumy City Council, attended the conference.
On behalf of the Guiyang Municipal People's Government and the people of Guiyang, Ma extended greetings to the people of Sumy and expressed heartfelt thanks to those who have made great efforts to promote the establishment of sister city relationship between Guiyang and Sumy. He introduced the economic and social development of Guiyang, saying Guiyang is a modern city with convenient transportation, abundant resources and beautiful ecological environment. In recent years, Guiyang has implemented the development concept of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing in an all-round way. With good ecological environment and convenient transportation, it has maintained a strong momentum of economic development, played a leading role in the digital economy, pressed ahead with opening-up, and made great strides in economic and social development. Committed to high-quality development focusing on new industrialization and a development path that is digital and green, Guiyang has been implementing five-year action plan of "building a strong provincial capital", to become a thriving city with better environment, stronger industry, and more vibrant digital economy, as well as a magnet for talents. It has accelerated to build itself into a provincial capital with a higher primacy ratio, a central city with greater influence, a functional city with a more eco-friendly environment and a commerce-friendly city with a higher happiness index. Sumy is a beautiful, prosperous and dynamic city with which Guiyang values exchanges and cooperation, he said, hoping that the two sides would take the opportunity of signing the letter of intent on sister city relationship establishment, to strengthen exchanges, expand and deepen pragmatic cooperation in fields such as trade, industries, education and ecology, so as to better benefit the people of both cities.
Lysenko briefly introduced Sumy's development, conveying the respects and thanks of the Sumy City Council, the Executive Committee and the people of Sumy to Guiyang. Sumy, an industrial city, has trade relations with many countries, and China is one of the top three export destinations of Sumy. Attracting urban investments is the future strategic preference of Sumy, he said. Now Sumy is pressing ahead with Sumy Industrial Park, stepping up policy optimization, attracting investments and focusing on infrastructure in the industrial park. He hoped that the two sides would open up a new prospect for international cooperation, and form a successful, fruitful and mutually-beneficial partnership, so as to better achieve win-win results.
Sumy, the capital of Sumy Oblast, is located on the bank of the Psel River in northern Ukraine. It covers an area of about 356 square kilometers and has a population of around 270,000. The two sides will work together to promote friendly people-to-people exchanges and carry out friendly cooperation in fields such as urban management, economic trade, investment, pharmaceuticals and people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
Heads of relevant departments in Guiyang and Sumy attended the conference.