Cebu, Fujian Strengthen Sisterhood Ties

Officials of China’s Fujian Province paid a visit at the Capitol on Monday, April 22, to reassure their Cebuano counterparts that their side remained steadfast in pursuing areas of cooperation that would benefit both provinces.

Last year, Fujian and Cebu signed a sisterhood agreement in which both provinces pledged to work together in boosting trade and investment, tourism and people-to-people exchange program.

“We would like to express our sincere thanks to your support and help in promoting the friendship and cooperation between Fujian and Cebu,” said Fujian’s Vice Gov. Gou Ningning, who led the Chinese delegation during a meeting with Capitol executives.

With the steady economic growth of both provinces and the good relationship between China’s President Xi Jinping and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Gou said Cebu and Fujian are better off as strategic partners in looking for new opportunities that would greatly benefit the people.

Led by Provincial Administrator lawyer Mark Tolentino, the Capitol department heads welcomed the Fujian delegation.

Gou said the bond between Cebu and Fujian and China and the Philippines in general is getting better through the years, which did not surprise her considering that most of the ancestors of Filipino-Chinese communities in the country came from Fujian.

With Gou’s revelation, Tolentino said that it would not be difficult to accomplish the goals of Cebu and Fujian as sister provinces.

“We simply have to open each other’s doors and promote more opportunities. I strongly believe that economic benefits will just follow,” Tolentino said.

Cebu Gov. Hilario P. Davide III and Fujian Gov. Tang Dengjie formally sealed the friendship ties between the two provinces in September last year during a visit by Chinese officials here in Cebu.

Part of the important agreement signed by the two officials was the people-to-people exchange program in which the Chinese offered scholarship grants to 10 young officials or students from Cebu for bachelor’s degrees in Fujian universities.

Cebu and Fujian rolled off the program in November last year, with the Cebu Provincial Government sending 12 Cebuano youths to Fujian for a two-week youth exchange visit, which the Chinese did the same.

Since the Philippines is an agricultural country, Gou said they would be happy to share their knowledge and technology in modern agriculture like the Juncao technology.

Invited by Lin Zhanxi, a professor at China’s Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in the 1980s, Juncao technology allows farmers to grow as many as 11 types of nutritious mushrooms from dried, chopped grasses, without cutting down trees and damaging the environment.