An excellent retreat for Sri Lankan tourists to visit Zhejiang
Since ancient times links between Sri Lanka and China were established on different fronts, including religions, trade, exploration, diplomatic, skill exchanges, etc. At present, under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, provinces in China play a key role with its ports, digital economy, and its manufacturing sectors in order to build connectivity and develop multilateralism. Out of many, Zhejiang Province in eastern China is a historical city and holds many ancient links to other cities in China and the rest of the world, it’s also considered as one of the wealthiest provinces in China.
Speaking to CGTN’s exclusive interview Mr. Yuan Jiajun, the Party Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee shared his vision and outlook for the coming five years. He added five major applications including the digital government, the digital economy, digital society, and the digital legal system.
The iconic Hangzhou city which is the capital of Zhejiang province and the former capital of China is considered as one of the most beautiful cities in China. Similar to Sri Lanka, Zhejiang is also famous for tea, and for few famous Buddhist temples as Guoqing Temple, Qita Temple, and Baoguo Temple while Mount Tiantai and Mount Putuo are also known for their roots in Buddhism. The amazing nature surrounding the famous great West Lake and Yandangshan mountain are ecologically rich environments. Also cites as, Shaoxing, Yiwu, Ningbo, Huzhou, and Jiaxing add to the list of must-visit places in the Zhejiang province. .
-One of the key offerings of China’s Belt and Road Initiative is to develop people-to-people relations, under that, city-to-city tourism is one area that could be implemented by provincial governments in China. Moreover, it would be an excellent retreat for Sri Lankan tourists to visit the famous tourist destinations of Zhejiang province-
One other economic pivot of Zhejiang province is its links to international maritime routes through the port of Ningbo, which is the world’s busiest port by throughput tonnage. Over one billion tons of goods passed through the Ningbo-Zhoushan port making the port one of the most important ports in the world. Moreover, The Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) is China’s only free trade zone that consists of both land and sea anchorage and would play an important role under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Mr.Yuan Jiajun highlighted that Zhejiang Province is home to some of the world’s leading companies, including tech giant Alibaba and automobile manufacturer Geely and acknowledged that private enterprises play an increasingly important role in the Chinese economy. Furthermore, he pointed out the preparation of Zhejiang province to hold the 19th Asian Games in 2022 September. Asian Games is considered one of the most competitive regional sporting events. Also, it would be a great opportunity for other Asian nations to explore China and to build regional friendships during the event.
Conclusively, the upcoming China-Sri Lanka free trade agreement is an important opportunity to further strengthen the links between Chinese cities and provinces under the umbrella of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Edited by Ye Ke from In Zhejiang , comments from Yasiru Ranaraja, a researcher on Maritime Affairs, graduating from Dalian Maritime University, and in 2016 he was awarded the Chinese Government Scholarship to complete his LLM at Ocean University of China. Yasiru currently serves as a Director to Belt & Road Initiative Sri Lanka (BRISL)
