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- ACT
This was published 9 years ago
ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher hosts meeting with Mayor of Beijing Anshun Wang
Leaders meet to discuss ways to further strengthen the sister city relationship between Canberra and Beijing.
By Tom McIlroy
As Federal Parliament prepares for an address from Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday afternoon, ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has hosted a meeting with the Mayor of Beijing Anshun Wang.
The pair met at Canberra's Regatta Point to discuss ways to further strengthen the sister city relationship between Canberra and Beijing. The meeting follows previous talks last year in the Chinese capital.
Katy Gallagher: The ACT Chief Minister thinks Canberra's links with Beijing can be strengthened.Credit: Jeffrey Chan
Mr Wang is making his first visit to Canberra as part of Mr Xi's visit for the G20 summit in Brisbane and will attend the China Australia Leaders Forum this week. Ms Gallagher will also take part in the meeting.
The Abbott government will sign a long-awaited free trade agreement with China on Monday.
"I think it is a great opportunity travelling with the President to see the sister city, the new Beijing Gardens and talk about areas where we can strengthen the relationship," Ms Gallagher said.
Ms Gallagher said despite its population of 30 million people, Beijing faced similar challenges to Canberra.
She said local authorities were aware of planned protests targeting President Xi over Chinese treatment of Falun Gong practitioners.
"We had a constructive discussion about how our two cities could continue to build on the strong ties that have been established, particularly over the past 14 years since the signing of a sister city relationship between Canberra and Beijing."
Canberra and Beijing could learn from each other in areas including urban planning, environmental protection and public transport provision, Ms Gallagher said.
"I also discussed the strong level of interest from Chinese companies in the ACT government's City to the Lake project and the Mayor expressed a willingness to promote these opportunities further to Beijing companies who may be interested."
The visit comes after the opening of the Beijing Gardens on Lake Burley Griffin this month, where Ms Gallagher was joined by Chinese Ambassador to Australia Ma Zhaoxu.
"The Mayor's visit was a wonderful opportunity to thank the Mayor and the Beijing Municipal Government personally for their generous gift to the city and people of Canberra. It was also great to promote the growing relationship between our two cities and our two countries," she said.
"I was pleased to hear that Mayor Wang has had the opportunity already to see the beautiful gardens in person."