Barcelona of Spain has now become a sister city of Shenzhen as mayors of the two cities signed the “Sister Cities” agreement via a video meeting Monday, according to Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.
Qin Weizhong, mayor of Shenzhen, and Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, signed the agreement, marking that the relationship between the two cities has been upgraded from friendship cities to sister cities.
“China and Spain are important strategic partners to each other. The signing ceremony is a realistic move to implement the important consensus reached by the two countries’ leaders,” Qin said. “Shenzhen will strengthen practical cooperation with Barcelona in fields such as trade, science and technology, culture, education and tourism, and strive to make positive contributions in strengthening comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Spain in the new era.”
Colau sent her congratulations via video link at the ceremony and hoped that the two cities took this event as an opportunity to promote collaborations in fields including smart city, scientific and technological innovation, creative culture, tourism, and trade, so as to join hands to contribute to global sustainable development.
Barcelona is a world-famous historical and cultural city, tourist destination, as well as Spain’s most important trading, industrial and financial hub. It has been Shenzhen’s friendship city since 2012.
As of now, Shenzhen has established friendly relationships with 88 provinces, cities and regions in 56 countries around the world and has 24 sister cities in total.