Nagpur, Jinan are sister cities; pact inked

The city of Nagpur and Chinese city of Jinan have become sister cities after signing a pact which allows for exchange of ideas and technology in the field of education, sports, youth affairs, urban planning among other areas.
The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Jinan, in a historic move, entered into an agreement yesterday to develop sister-city relationship.
Nagpur civic commissioner Shravan Hardikar and Director of Jinan Municipal People's Congress, Xu Changyu, signed the pact here in the presence of Nagpur mayor Pravin Datke and officials from the visiting Chinese delegation.
Jinan is capital of Eastern China's Shandong province with a population of about 30 lakh and is know for its beautiful lakes.

The move is a part of an agreement signed between Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peoples Republic of China, for facilitating co-operation and linkages between cities and states or provinces of India and China in May 2013.
Hardikar gave a presentation on NMC's developmental projects.

Xu Changyu spoke in detail about Jinan and its expertise in fields of education, culture, development of rivers, urban planning etc.
He also suggested that NMC send students from the city to Jinan for seeking knowledge about various technologies.
Datke said Jinan's assistance could be taken for improvement of education, production of various orange products and mining activities.

NMC may also seek Jinan's cooperation in the field of sports, youth affairs, urban planning, waste water management, infrastructure, environment, public health and exchange of trade and commercial delegations, an official release said.
Also, financial assistant can be sought from Jinan for executing of few developmental projects in the orange city. The agreement has been executed for five years and can be extended by another five years, it said.
This is for the first time a city from Vidarbha has developed sister city concept with any foreign city, the release added.