"The construction of 'two countries, one city' is proceeding smoothly."

This article is reprinted from: Carving Machine Network http://www.gravograph.cn/

Heihe City and Blagoveshchensk City of Russia's Amur Oblast are separated by a river. When viewed from the air, they resemble "twins", as if they were one city.

Since the beginning of this year, Heihe and Blagoveshchensk have continued to promote the integrated development strategy of "two countries, one city" on the principle of moving forward hand in hand, mutual benefit and win-win, and sharing harmony. They have actively developed towards the direction of "government interaction, resource sharing, market integration, platform sharing, joint prosperity of science and education, and cultural integration" and have made new progress in many aspects.

Joint efforts for shared prosperity

The geographical location of "the window between China and Russia, the gate between Europe and Asia", rich natural resources, preferential investment policies, and excellent service environment have made the twin cities of China and Russia - Heihe·Blagoveshchensk an important platform for strategic investment.

On January 29th, Mayor Zhang Jingchuan of Heihe Municipal Government was invited to attend the launch ceremony of the Russian "China Year" in Amur Oblast, marking another good start for the two places to join hands, plan for development together, and jointly build the "two countries, one city" in 2007.

This year, Heihe and Blagoveshchensk continued to co-organize image exhibitions and appeared together at the Harbin Fair, once again drawing widespread attention from all sectors of society. Our city signed a total of 67 contracts, with a domestic economic and trade cooperation signing amount of 3.45 billion yuan and a foreign economic and trade signing amount of 820 million US dollars.

Last year, Heihe and Amur Oblast jointly went to Wenzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou for investment promotion and attracted attention in Jiangnan. This year, they also appeared together in Yantai, Weifang, and Quanzhou. Every time they arrived at a place, they jointly introduced the geographical and resource advantages of the two places and promoted investment projects, achieving fruitful results.

This summer, in order to further increase the advancement of the "two countries, one city" strategy, Heihe, Amur Oblast, and Blagoveshchensk municipal governments jointly held the first Summer of Twin Cities - Heihe Sino-Russian International Festival. This event, with the theme of "friendly neighbors, interactive win-win, two countries, one city, sharing harmony", further created the new image of "Jewel of the North, charming Heihe", "window between China and Russia, gate between Europe and Asia", and "Heihe·Blagoveshchensk - two countries, one city".

As a whole, our city and Blagoveshchensk jointly participated in the Moscow·China National Exhibition and the 30th Amur Oblast Trade Fair. At the Amur Oblast Trade Fair, the light industrial products, engineering machinery, pharmaceutical products, and various types of vehicles exhibited by our city caught the attention of Russian business people.

Complementary advantages for mutual benefits

Heihe and Blagoveshchensk have very strong complementarities. To dig out their common interests, promote the cross-border flow of production factors, and comprehensively strengthen multi-field cooperation, they need to develop together and achieve mutual benefits and win-win results.

Mr. Wang, a Chinese overseas in Russia, seeing the favorable policies and good investment environment in our city, decided to invest without hesitation. Recently, the high-end hotel he invested in, which combines Chinese and Western catering cultures, has already opened.

On May 12th, our city held the 2007 Beidaihe, Heihe, and Russian Amur Oblast Tourism Industry Friendship Meeting. Tourism professionals from the three places jointly planned cooperative development, laying the foundation for achieving complementary advantages, cooperative win-win, and common development. In recent years, more than ten thousand Russian tourists pass through the Heihe port every year to visit Beidaihe.

At the Summer of Twin Cities - Sino-Russian Heihe International Festival, frequent news of regional cooperation projects between Heihe and Blagoveshchensk was heard. A total of 17 cooperation project agreements were signed, including 5 in foreign trade and 12 in economic and technical cooperation projects, with a total investment of 600 million yuan.

The first phase of the emerging basic raw material processing zone has been put into operation, introducing 500 million kilowatt-hours of electricity from Russia. The second phase is under rapid construction. On July 26th, the construction of the Heihe converter station of the Sino-Russian DC back-to-back power grid interconnection project officially started, marking a new milestone in Sino-Russian power cooperation.

At the Amur Oblast Trade Fair, the Tianmo Hai Computer Company brought its latest product - a laser engraving machine, filling the gap in the Amur Oblast market. Baicheng home appliances on Daheihe Island have stores in both Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, selling well-known home appliances produced by Sino-foreign joint ventures, and have reaped abundant harvests. Aihui District has played the openness card by organizing more than 20 enterprises and over 100 types of products to participate in the exhibition, promoting Longdan infant formula, Xifengshan starch, Changping furniture, and other products to the foreign market.

Under the impetus of the "two countries, one city" strategic concept, enterprises from both sides closely cooperate, consolidate cooperation in the economic and trade field, and continuously expand to the production field. The Heihe Huaxing Economic and Technical Cooperation Company, which has established a Chinese brand in the construction market of Amur Oblast, extends its cooperation with Russia and signs a framework agreement to jointly construct the Amur Cement Plant with the Russian side.

The vegetable export base project of Aihui District to Russia, the agricultural development project outside the country in Xunke County, the large-fruited sea buckthorn industrialization project in Sunwu County, the fine rubber powder production project using imported used tires from Russia, the wood deep processing project of Good Luck Wood Industry Co., Ltd. in Russia, and other projects are being advanced orderly.

Deep friendship between the people on both shores

The multi-level mutual visits between Heihe and Blagoveshchensk and the activities held in the two places have increased day by day, colorful and splendid, enhancing the friendship between the people. Just this year, the overall activities cover many fields such as politics, science and technology, education, humanities, economy, and military.

In the events held by the Russian side, there are Chinese paper-cutting art exhibitions, Sino-Russian educational friendly weeks, Sino-Russian philatelic exhibitions, Chinese painting art exhibitions, and those held in Heihe include the Summer of Twin Cities - Sino-Russian International Festival, Sino-Russian youth taekwondo friendship matches, Sino-Russian winter swimming performance matches, Sino-Russian youth snowboarding performance matches, Sino-Russian middle school students jointly welcoming the 47th World Meteorological Day, and Sino-Russian boundary representatives jointly commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the victory against fascism. There are many mutual visits between the two places, covering a wide range of fields, high standards, and distinctive features.

During the celebration of "March 8th" International Women's Day, the number of participants in the mutual visits doubled to 60 people to meet the needs of friendly exchanges between women in the two places.

In March, a delegation from the Amur Oblast Parliament came to our city, and in August, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of our city went to Amur Oblast for work exchanges. Both sides expressed that with the deepening understanding of the "two countries, one city" concept, further cooperation should be strengthened.