Yunnan Party chief holds talks with visiting diplomats

Yunnan Party secretary Ruan Chengfa, who is also chairman of the standing committee of Yunnan Provincial People’s Congress, held talks on April 23 with ambassadors and senior diplomats on a 4-day tour in the southwestern Chinese province.

Welcoming the diplomats from 28 countries, Ruan briefed on Yunnan’s provincial conditions and its socio-economic development in the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020). He also shared with the guests Yunnan practices and experiences in targeted poverty-elimination.

“Yunnan’s fight against poverty makes a miniature of the Chinese endeavor in poverty elimination, and we’re expecting more poverty-reduction exchanges between Yunnan and its international peers,” said Ruan, adding the province also hopes to increase cooperation and friendship with other countries.

Ruan warmly invited the diplomats to the coming fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), which will be held in Kunming, Yunnan province in October.

Ambassadors from Zambia, Azerbaijan, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Venezuela and South Africa spoke in succession during the meeting, thanking the Chinese foreign ministry and Yunnan for organizing the tour and congratulating on the province’s achievement in poverty elimination.

Having seen the great progresses brought by Yunnan’s poverty reduction and ecological conservation, the diplomats said their countries hoped to cooperate with the Chinese province in agriculture, economy, tourism, education, poverty relief, eco-protection and city-level partnerships.

The diplomats also wished the forthcoming COP15 a success in Kunming.

Reporting by Chen Xiaobo, Han Chengyuan, Liu Ziyu and Can Zhou (Yunnan Daily); Trans-editing by Wang Shixue