Khomas region, Jiangsu province sign twinning agreement

The Khomas region and China’s Jiangsu province’s foreign affairs office yesterday signed a work plan agreement focusing on six programmes for the next five years.

The Chinese delegation, which includes the governor of the Jiangsu provincial government, Ma Xin, is in Namibia for the twinning partnership this week.

Khomas regional governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua said the partnership will focus on areas such as secretarial partnership, scholarships and bursary programmes, student and youth exchange programmes, policy makers and staff exchange programmes, trade and investment promotion, and community empowerment programmes.

She said the signing of the work plan aims to recognise the impact of the existing cooperation between the two countries, based on equality and mutual benefits, to promote two-way exchange.

The work plan is a result of an agreement signed on 19 June 2015, between the Khomas region and the Jiangsu province, and another agreement signed with the Khomas Regional Council in 2023.

Jiangsu’s deputy governor said they are moving to new heights, including intensifying high-level exchanges.

He said the two partners aim to promote the establishment of a long-term cooperative mechanism.

“After more than a decade of friendly interactions, the provinces have established several sister-city relationships, including Jiangsu province with the Khomas region, and Nanjing and Suzhou with Windhoek, where cooperation in trade, education, sport and other fields has yielded positive results,” he said.

He said both sides could use the opportunity of the 35th anniversary of China-Namibia diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the formal establishment of sister-province relations next year to further enrich cooperation and to perfect the cooperation mechanism.

“We aim to regularly discuss and plan cooperation priorities together, advancing relevant cooperative matters in a coordinated fashion, and creating a new pattern of city-to-province linkage and departmental collaboration in sister-city interactions,” he said.