On April 6, Fernando Luglis, UruguayanAmbassador to China, and his party visited Yichang and inspected successively the Three Gorges Project, the New Countryside of Guanzhuang and the Yichang City Museum. In the afternoon, Zhang Hangyu, member of the Standing Committee of Yichang Municipal Committee and vice mayor, welcomed the group at Taohualing Hotel. He said that as stressed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, Uruguay is a trustworthy good friend of China in Latin America, and the two countries have always understood and supported each other, and we hope to promote the high-quality co-construction of B&R, and to strengthen exchanges and cooperationsin culture, education, sports and other fields so as toconsolidate the public support for Sino-Uruguay friendship.

　　The vice mayor continued by saying that Yichang, with her long history, rich culture, beautiful mountains and rivers, boasts abundant natural resources, location advantages and perfect industrial structure. Bearing in mind both what General Secretary Xi Jinping instructed when he visited the Yangtze River and inspected Yichang as the first stop in Hubei in 2018 and the requirement made by the provincial party committeeto “continue to work in the forefront”,we are accelerating the construction of Yichang into one of the provincial sub-central cities, into a regional centre in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and into a model city for the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and striving to write a new chapter of Yichang’s high-quality development in the new era. Uruguay has frequent and fruitful friendly exchanges with Yichang and the whole province. Hubei and Rivera have friendly and cooperative ties, and many enterprises from Yichang export their products to Uruguay. We are willing and look forward to further strengthen the economic and trade exchanges with Uruguayan local governments and enterprises, to deepen our practical cooperationsin various fields, and to jointly contribute positively to the enhancement of friendship between the two countries.

　　Fernando Luglis expressed his admiration for the achievements made by Yichang both in fighting the epidemic and in economic recovery. He said that China will continue to act as the engine of global economic growth, and Uruguay is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperationswith Yichang and other places in the economy and trade, environmental protection, science and technology, tourism, etc. to deepen Sino-Uruguay relations through practical local cooperations.