Jiangsu People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries held the 3rd meeting of the 6th council this Tuesday, and decided to award Jiangsu People’s Goodwill Messenger Title to 18 international friends. Zheng Yintai, Xu Dayuan from South Korea, and Beth from France, Auric Laufhund from Germany, Shibata Yutaka from Japan all won the award.
Nowadays, more than 100,000 foreigners work, study and live in Jiangsu. Last June, Jiangsu People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries formulated Measures for the Designation of Jiangsu People’s Goodwill Messenger Title. Recommended by local authorities and approved by the General Council of Jiangsu People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the meeting decided to award Goodwill Messenger Title to 18 international friends. They come from America, Japan, South Korea, France, and other 11 countries. Some of the messengers persistently promote friendly exchanges between nations; some make great efforts for local economic development; some make use of their knowledge to improve local medical level, which reflects that true friendship has no borders.
Mr. Shibata Yutaka, who came all the way to attend the awarding ceremony, delivered his acknowledgement speech. Mr. Shibata Yutaka is the president of Japan-China Joint-constructed Sakura Friendship Forest Preservation Association; he yearly organized Japanese educators to carry out exchanges with Wuxi, and facilitated two Japanese enterprises to establish sole proprietors in Wuxi New District. He also led the association to donate 20 million yen, and construct China-Japan Sakura Friendship Forest Activity Center together with Wuxi People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. Since 2014, Mr. Shibata Yutaka formed groups and actively participated in Wuxi Sakura Festival and International Sakura Week’s activities every year, which made positive contributions to the expansion of Wuxi’s influence in Japan. Last year, Mr. Shibata Yutaka was awarded Sakura Messenger by Wuxi People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
Bai Suning, chairman of Jiangsu People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries said that, we award the provincial, meaningful and honorable Jiangsu People’s Goodwill Messenger Title to the foreigners who make outstanding contributions to the economic and social development of Jiangsu province and international friendly cooperation. It can stimulate their enthusiasm to participate in the economic and social construction and development of Jiangsu province; it is also conducive to strengthen the cooperative relationship between Jiangsu and China-friendly people from other countries, so as to promote the international exchange and cooperation of Jiangsu province, said Bai.
