The Website Launch Ceremony of 21st-Century Maritime Cooperation Committee was held both online and offline on the morning of Dec. 31, 2020. The launch ceremony was hosted by 21st-Century Maritime Cooperation Committee and Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government. Mr. Jiang Jiang, Vice President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and Dr. Bernadia Tjandradewi, Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) attended the ceremony and delivered speeches through Zoom. Mr. Hang Dong, Deputy Mayor of Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government and Secretary General of 21st-Centrury Maritime Cooperation Committee, attended the launch ceremony at the Committee Secretariat and delivered a speech. Member delegates of the Committee from Indonesia, Cambodia, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives and Chinese cities, like Hangzhou and Ningde, participated in the launch ceremony online.

Mr. Jiang Jiang, Vice President of CPAFFC, noted in his speech that the website of 21st-Century Maritime Cooperation Committee added a new good platform for communication and exchanges as well as international cooperation of the Belt and Road Initiative among members and partners. Facing the impacts of the COVID-19, the international cooperation of the Belt and Road Initiative hasn’t been stopped, but has showed great resilience and vigor, played a crucial role in fighting the pandemic, stabilizing the economy and ensuring people’s livelihood across the world, and made a positive contribution to the implementation of UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 5th Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee concluded this year mapped out the grand blueprint for China’s development. China will uphold and implement the new development philosophy, actively build a new dual-circulation development pattern with the domestic circulation as the mainstay and the domestic and international circulation reinforcing each other. The rapid development of China’s economy will provide stronger power and broader development space to build a high-quality Belt and Road Initiative.

Dr. Bernadia, Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC, stressed in her speech the importance of the website as a bridge of information and communication. She expressed that the launch of the website provided a new platform for members to “meet” each other and exchange views. With its great potentials, the website will help us better communicate and cooperate, as well as offer more valuable information for members, partners and the general public. This will help the Committee and its members to share achievements with other countries and organizations and achieve mutual benefits and win-win situation. She believed the establishment of the new website will contribute to the deep cooperation among Committee members in the fields of marine science and technology and ecological system protection.

Mr. Hang Dong, Deputy Mayor of Fuzhou, noted that in the past three years of its establishment, 21st-Century Maritime Cooperation Committee has promoted mutual understanding among cities and local governments in Asia Pacific region and even the entire world, and provided more opportunities for multilateral communication and cooperation among cities. Facing the on-going spread of the pandemic around the globe, with the face-to-face communication severely affected, many activities of the Committee were held from offline to online. Taking the advantage of its location where the Committee Secretariat is situated, Fuzhou actively prepared, planned and promoted the launch of the website to facilitate more effective share of information and resources among members and deepen the concrete exchanges and cooperation. In the future, we hope the website can fully serve as a platform, continuously gather members, integrate resources from all sides, and build a new online bridge of exchanges and cooperation to link the cities and local governments in the Asia Pacific region and even across the world.

With its establishment led by Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government, the website of 21st-Century Maritime Cooperation Committee is the first international website in Fuzhou both in Chinese and English. The website has 9 blocks and over 20 columns, including events, exchanges and cooperation and Maritime Fuzhou, etc. It presents in forms of videos, words and pictures to realize digital interactions with its members. It will demonstrate the Committee’s activities and achievements in full respects to expand exchange channels for its members and realize the share of information and resources. At the same time, the website will actively demonstrate a modern and international city image of Fuzhou, and serve as a new window for sharing maritime cooperation achievements.

Next, by making use of the website platform, the Committee Secretariat will focus on two jobs. Firstly, do a good job in publicity and introduction of Fuzhou. Great efforts will be made to promote and introduce the Night Economy of Fuzhou to increase its tourism attraction; combine Fuzhou’s phased key work and strengthen coordination with other municipal departments to well tell Chinese stories and share Fuzhou’s experience through activities, such as jointly holding meetings and seminars. Taking the holding of the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee as a good opportunity, we will focus on the promotion and introduction of Fuzhou’s experience and methods in the protection of ancient buildings and actively carry out relative cultural exchanges activities to promote Fuzhou’s culture. Secondly, enhance practical cooperation among members. We should make use of the website’s function as a significant window for external exchanges, constantly improve the information database about our members and advance more effective share of information and resources. We will encourage and guide city members to settle their industries and introduce products with their own characteristics in Fuzhou, and facilitate practical cooperation among committee members.

 Hang Dong, Deputy Mayor of Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government, and heads of other municipal departments, attended the launch ceremony.