Country for PR: China
Contributor: Xinhua News Agency
Wednesday, April 22 2020 - 23:11
AsiaNet
Xi'an Launches Anti-pandemic Cooperation with Her International Sister Cities
XI'AN, China, April 22, 2020 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/ --

On April 10, a special video conference took place in the ancient city of Xi'an 
in northwest China, according to Xi'an Municipal Government. An expert team 
comprised of professors from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong 
University shared experiences of COVID-19 prevention and control with medical 
experts from 13 countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and 
Pakistan. Prior to this, the team that provided medical assistance to Wuhan had 
already shared experiences and insights with medical workers in Italy, 
Australia, the United States and several other countries.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China has implemented comprehensive and stringent 
prevention and control measures. During the critical period when China was 
fighting the epidemic at its peak, more than 60 international sister cities, 
international organizations and other international collaborators offered 
whatever support they could to the people of Xi'an and donated epidemic 
prevention supplies such as medical masks and protective clothing. After so 
much hard work, China has made phased achievements in containing the outbreak, 
and the ancient capital of Xi'an is reviving its prosperity.

Due to the current rapid spread of COVID-19 across the globe, some countries in 
Europe and Asia are having a hard time fighting the disease. In a sign of 
solidarity and in reciprocation of help when needed, the Xi'an Municipal 
Government immediately coordinated assistance for its international sister 
cities in a variety of ways. The Municipal authorities provided the first batch 
of medical and anti-epidemic supplies to seven sister cities in four countries, 
namely Italy, Iran, South Korea and The Philippines. On March 20, donated 
supplies including medical masks, protective clothing, medical gloves, and 
disinfection and sterilization supplies worth more than 3 million RMB were 
collected from the Xi'an Xianyang International Airport and sent to Pompeii and 
Veneto in Italy, Isfahan in Iran, Gyeongju and Jinju in South Korea, and Ilijan 
in The Philippines. After the arrival of the first batch of these supplies, the 
recipient sister cities expressed their gratitude to the people of Xi'an.

So as to maintain effective and ongoing epidemic prevention and the orderly 
resumption of production, Xi'an went all out to provide a second round of 
assistance and donated supplies to more than 30 international sister cities. On 
April 13, a batch of supplies worth about 1.9 million RMB was collected for 
distribution to more than 10 cities in a number of countries, namely France, 
Switzerland, Germany, Malaysia, Colombia and Nepal, and these supplies will 
arrive at the destinations very soon. As a next step, Xi'an will collect and 
distribute more donated supplies to other cities, and the city authorities also 
plan to send supplies to its international expert consultants.

Source: Xi'an Municipal Government