Internal working platform of Yunnan Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

On June 20, the 2025 Yunnan Province International Friendship City Cooperation Week was held in Kunming, with the theme of "Speaking Friendship and Promoting Cooperation" to build a bridge to communicate with the world.

Representatives from international friendly cities and friendly organizations such as Bantei Mianji Province in Cambodia, Yangon Province in Myanmar, Incheon City in South Korea, Timish Province in Romania, Chiang Rai Province in Thailand, Laojie Province in Vietnam, and local government leaders in Kunming City, Honghe Prefecture, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Dehong Prefecture, etc. in Yunnan Province made recommendations. Representatives from all friendly cities affirmed the previous exchanges and cooperation, believing that people-to-people communication is an important foundation for development, and look forward to further promoting friendly relations through this event and carrying out wider exchanges and cooperation in various fields such as education, health, culture, and youth.

In November 1981, Kunming City and Fujisawa City, Japan, formed the first pair of internationally friendly cities in Yunnan Province, kicking off the work of Yunnan's internationally friendly cities. Up to now, Yunnan Province has established 116 pairs of international friendly cities with 37 countries on 5 continents. In addition to international friendly cities, Yunnan Province has established friendly exchanges and cooperation relations with South Chungcheon Province, Incheon Hiroshima City, Japan, and Iwate Prefecture.

Yunnan Province and Myanmar have 6 pairs of international friendly cities, namely: Yunnan Province-Yangon Province, Kunming-Mandalay City, Kunming-Yangon City, Baoshan City-Mykyina City, Lincang City-Lashi City, and Ruili City-Mujie City. In January 2020, Yunnan Province and Yangon Province officially established friendly provincial relations. With the high attention and promotion of the top leaders of the two provinces, the two sides have carried out fruitful friendly exchanges and cooperation in the fields of education, health, science and technology, tourism, etc. Bo Tai, mayor of Yangon City, Yangon Province, Myanmar, said that China is a long-term partner of Myanmar. The two sides have conducted exchanges and cooperation in many aspects, especially in the field of innovation, and have carried out extensive cooperation from smart technology, green energy to cultural industries and health solutions. He hopes that in the next step, the two sides can strengthen exchanges and cooperation in renewable energy, digital innovation and sustainable tourism, and achieve more achievements.

Huang Xiaozhen, deputy mayor of Incheon Gwangju City, South Korea, introduced Incheon's achievements in logistics, education, and high-tech to everyone. He said that Yunnan Province is a tourist destination, so he hopes that the two sides can communicate more about tourism in the future. He also mentioned that Incheon has a special economic free trade zone, which is equivalent to China's free trade pilot zone. There are many foreign companies and many excellent Korean local enterprises. In the next step, we hope that the two sides will use the economic free trade zone to exchange and cooperate in biology, semiconductors, logistics, etc.

Yunnan Province and Vietnam have 18 pairs of international friendly cities. Since the relationship, senior leaders of the two provinces have frequently visited each other, the two sides have close economic and trade exchanges, convenient interconnection, rich civil exchanges, and mutually beneficial cooperation has been continuously consolidated and deepened. At present, two "Xin Unicom Yunnan Tour" people's livelihood charity projects are implemented in Laojie Province, Vietnam. Nguyen Chengsheng, vice chairman of the Vietnamese Laojie Provincial People's Committee, said that the international friendly city cooperation platform is to share development opportunities and tighten the bond of unity. The two sides have achieved many achievements in economic and trade, education, biology, tourism and other aspects. He said that the old street has great potential in plateau agriculture, tourism, etc., and hopes to cooperate in arable land, planting, etc., and the old street will also become a solid bridge to connect friendship.

After the promotion meeting, 18 projects including the "Letter of Intent to Establish a Friendly Provincial Relations between Yunnan Province and Western Sumatra Province, Indonesia" and the Agreement on Establishing a Friendly City Relations between Jiangcheng County, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, and You County, Fengshali Province, Laos" were signed on the spot, covering friendly city relations, medical care, agriculture, environmental protection, economic and trade investment and other fields, laying a solid foundation for further deepening cooperation.