Mahamadou Issoufou, President of the Republic of Niger with his delegation paid a visit to Yichang City on July 21st, accompanied by Xia Huang (Chinese ambassador to Niger), Shao Yuanzhou (President of Hubei People\'s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries), Zhou Jiazhu (Deputy Director-General of Hubei Provincial Public Security Department) and Zhang Zhengjun (Deputy Mayor of the People\'s Government of Yichang City), etc. The leaders from the municipal Committee of CPC and People\'s Government hosted an evening banquet to the guest delegates, and Li Lecheng, Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Yichang City attended the banquet and made a welcome speech.

　　The Republic of Niger is a landlocked country in Western Africa with a land area of almost 1,267,000 km2 and a population of around 16.1 million, and its economic development is featured by agriculture and animal husbandry. As one of the hottest nations in the world, its annual average temperature reaches 30℃.

　　Issoufou with his delegation left Wuhan for Yichang by bullet train on the same day and then visited the Three Gorges Project, exactly, the Exhibition Hall, the Central Controlling Room of the power plants, the dam and watched the documentary film of the project construction as well as the view of flood release. He also listened to the introduction to the investment, construction and functions of the project as well as the resettlement of habitants of the reservoir area. At the end of his visit to the Exhibition Hall, he sang high praise in his French inscription for the great achievements of the construction of the Three Gorges Project in flood controlling, power generation and inland navigation.

　　In his speech, Li Lecheng on behalf of the municipal committee and government expressed the warm welcome to the Nigerian delegation. He said, in the recent years, Yichang has deepened its opening-up to the outside world and has greatly improved its international popularity; actually, it has established the relationship of twin cities with eight cities of seven nations. With constant promotion of Sino-Africa cooperation and communication, Yichang has been establishing the closer relationship with the African nations. As a fact, more than 200 doctors and scores of agricultural experts have been sent from Yichang to Africa for medical and agricultural aids to African people, as has laid solid foundation for the friendship between Yichang and African nations.

　　At the end of the evening banquet, Issoufou expressed his thanks for the hospitality and warm reception he had received in Yichang and his admiration of the rapid progress in the past years as well. He said, China guided by the Communist Party is good at learning from her experience and history and is now advancing rapidly in the correct direction, and she is a good model for the developing nations. He also suggested, the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing several days before was a good initiation and basis for enhancement of cooperation and communication between the African nations with China, including Hubei Province and Yichang City.