Original article is from: Gravograph.cn http://www.gravograph.cn/
Heihe City and Blagoveshchensk City of Russia's Amur Oblast are separated only by a river. When viewed from the air, they resemble "twins," appearing like one city.
Since the beginning of this year, Heihe and Blagoveshchensk, adhering to the principles of mutual progress, win-win cooperation, and shared harmony, have continued to advance the integrated development strategy of "one city in two countries," actively moving towards the direction of "government interaction, resource sharing, market integration, platform co-construction, joint prosperity in science and education, and cultural fusion," achieving new progress in many areas.
Joint efforts on both shores lead to common prosperity
The geographical advantage of being the "window between China and Russia" and the "door between Asia and Europe," abundant natural resources, preferential investment policies, and excellent service environments have made the twin cities of Heihe and Blagoveshchensk an important platform for strategic investment.
On January 29th, Mayor Zhang Jingchuan of Heihe City was invited to attend the launch ceremony of Russia's "China Year" in Amur Oblast, marking another good start for the collaboration and shared development of the two places in 2007, jointly constructing "one city in two countries."
This year, Heihe and Blagoveshchensk continued to co-host image exhibitions and jointly appeared at the Harbin Trade Fair, once again attracting 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 total foreign economic and trade signing amount of 820 million US dollars.
Last year, Heihe and Amur Oblast jointly promoted investment attraction in Wenzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, drawing attention in southern China. This year, they also appeared together in Yantai, Weifang, and Quanzhou. In every place they visited, they jointly introduced the geographical and resource advantages of both areas and promoted investment projects, achieving fruitful results.
This summer, to further promote the "one city in two countries" strategy, Heihe, along with Amur Oblast and Blagoveshchensk governments, jointly hosted the first Summer of Twin Cities - Heihe Sino-Russian International Cultural Festival. This event, themed around "neighborly friendship, interactive win-win, one city in two countries, shared harmony," further enhanced the new image of "Jewel of the North, Charming Heihe," "Window between China and Russia, Door between Asia and Europe," and "Heihe-Blagoveshchensk - One City in Two Countries."
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, light industrial products, engineering machinery, pharmaceuticals, various vehicles, and other items exhibited by our city caught the attention of Russian business figures.
Mutual advantages for a win-win situation
Heihe and Blagoveshchensk have very strong complementarities. To explore their shared interests, promote cross-border flow of production factors, and comprehensively strengthen multi-field cooperation, they must develop together and achieve mutual benefits.
Mr. Wang, a Chinese overseas resident in Russia, seeing the favorable policies and good investment environment of our city, decisively decided to invest. Recently, his high-end hotel combining Chinese and Western culinary cultures has already opened.
On May 12th, our city held the 2007 Beidaihe, Heihe, Russian Amur Oblast Tourism Industry Networking Meeting. Tourist industry figures from three locations jointly planned cooperative development, laying the foundation for achieving complementary advantages, cooperative win-win outcomes, and common development. In recent years, more than ten thousand Russian tourists have traveled through the Heihe port to visit Beidaihe each year.
At the Summer of Twin Cities - Sino-Russian Heihe International Cultural Festival, frequent news of regional cooperation projects between Heihe and Blagoveshchensk was reported. Agreements were signed for 17 cooperation projects, including five in foreign trade and twelve in economic and technical cooperation, with a total investment of 600 million yuan.
The first phase of the emerging basic raw material processing zone has started production, importing 500 million kilowatt-hours of electricity from Russia, while the second phase is accelerating construction. On July 26th, the Heihe converter station project of the Sino-Russian DC back-to-back interconnection project officially started construction, marking a new milestone in Sino-Russian power cooperation.
At the Amur Oblast Trade Fair, the Tianmo Hai Computer Company showcased its latest product - a laser engraving machine - filling the gap in the Amur Oblast market. Daheihe Island Baicheng Home Appliances has stores in both Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, selling well-known joint venture brand home appliances, with significant gains. The Aiwei District heavily promotes openness, organizing over 20 enterprises and more than 100 types of products to participate in the exhibition, pushing Longdan century-old milk powder, Xifengshan starch, Changping furniture, and other products into foreign markets.
Under the impetus of the "one city in two countries" strategic concept, enterprises from both sides closely cooperate, consolidate cooperation in the economic and trade fields, and continuously expand into production areas. The Heihe Huaxing Economic and Technical Cooperation Co., Ltd., which has established a Chinese brand in the construction market of the Russian Amur Oblast, extends its cooperation with Russia and signs a framework agreement to jointly build the Amur Cement Plant with the Russian side.
The Aiwei District vegetable export base project to Russia, the agricultural development project outside the border in Xunke County, the large-fruited sea buckthorn industrialization project in Sunwu County, the project of processing fine rubber powder from imported Russian waste tires, and the deep processing project of Russian timber by Good Luck Wood Industry Co., Ltd. are all being steadily advanced.
Deep friendship between people on both shores
The multi-level reciprocal visits between Heihe and Blagoveshchensk and the activities held by both places are increasing, becoming more colorful, enhancing the friendship between the people. Just this year alone, the overall activities cover political, scientific, educational, cultural, economic, military, and other fields.
Events held on the Russian side include a Chinese paper-cutting art exhibition, Sino-Russian education friendly week, Sino-Russian philatelic exhibition, Chinese painting art exhibition, as well as events held in Heihe such as the Summer of Twin Cities - Sino-Russian International Cultural Festival, Sino-Russian youth taekwondo friendship match, Sino-Russian winter swimming performance match, Sino-Russian youth snowboarding performance match, 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 in the anti-fascist war. There are many reciprocal visits between the two places, covering a wide range of fields, high standards, and distinctive features.
During the joint celebration of the "March 8th" International Women's Day, the number of participants in reciprocal visits doubled to 60 people to meet the needs of friendly exchanges between women in both places.
In March, a delegation from the Amur Oblast Parliament came to our city, and in August, the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress went to Amur Oblast for work exchanges. Both sides expressed that with the deepening of the "one city in two countries" concept, they need to further strengthen cooperation.