A meeting was held on Thursday, September 8th between the delegation of the City of Wuhan of China and the delegation of the City of Chalkida under the existing Memorandum of Cooperation between the two respective cities. Head of the Chinese delegation of five, was Mr. Xiaozi, Deputy Chairman of the Municipal Organization for External Cultural Relations of the City of Wuhan.

In his brief speech the Mayor of Chalkida, Mr. Christos Pagonis, welcomed the Chinese delegation and expressed his satisfaction for the progress made in the level of cooperation between the two cities in the short time since the signing of the Μemorandum, which led to the specific workshop between the Chalkida and Wuhan delegations. The Mayor emphasized the strong commitment of the City of Chalkida on deepening the bilateral relations in the sectors of tourism, culture and trade and expressed his confidence that by next summer Chalkida and Wuhan will be able to welcome Chinese and Greek visitors and missions respectively.

A brief welcome speech was also addressed by Evia’s Vice-Governor, Mr. Fanis Spanos, who paid tribute to the City of Chalkida for initiating this cooperation with the Chinese City.
In his statements the Head of the Chinese delegation,Mr. Xiaozi, referred to the extremely positive impression that was conveyed to him by the Wuhan delegation led by Executive Vice Mayor, Mr. Jia Yaobin, last November and acknowledged the progress that has taken place during the interim period regarding the strengthening of the two cities’ ties . Furthermore, Mr. Xiaozi referred to the ongoing preparation carried out by the designated working groups of the two cities with the aim to commence joint actions.

Upon completion of the workshop the Chinese delegation was toured around key attractions of Chalkida. Wuhan is the 7th largest city of China with a population of 10 million. It is the capital of Hubei region, with a population of 60 million. It is also the most populous city in central China and is considered the economic, political, educational, cultural and transport center of Central China. Wuhan ranks fourth in terms of trade volume in China, only surpassed by Shanghai, Beijing and Gkouantzchou.