On July 29, Wang Li,secretary of the municipal CPCcommittee met with Kang Seung-seok, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Wuhanand his party on their Journey to Jing-chu.

　　Wang extended welcome to the visitors andintroduced the economic and social development of Yichang. He said them that Yichang,located in central China,isinthe transition zone between the Yangtze River and its tributaries, and between the Jianghan Plainand the surrounding mountains, namely DabaShan, Wushan and Wuling Mountain. For a long time, Yichang government has attachedgreat importance to friendly exchanges and cooperation with other countries, and have established closer ties witheach other, so that the economic and trade cooperation have becomeincreasingly extensive, and the cross-cultural exchanges are also flourishing. Bearing in mind what General Secretary Xi Jinping instructed when he visited the Yangtze River and inspected Yichang as the first stop in Hubei, we are nowspeeding up the construction of Yichang into a world famous tourist city, a capital of clean energy, a throat hub of Yangtze River, a fine phosphating center, an ecological barrier of the Three Gorges and a civilization model city. The local government willcontinuously improve the comprehensive strength and influence of the city by building it into a regional science and technology innovation center, a financial center, a logistics center, a consumption center and a vitality center. He expressed hissincere hope that the consuls continue to pay attention to and know more about Yichang, and better play a role of bridge, expand cooperation through deepening exchanges, enhance the level of cooperation and expand non-governmental exchanges. Yichang will be more opento the outside world and will provide better services for both foreign-funded enterprises and expatriates from various countries.

　　Kang said that Yichang is a key place forthe development of Chu culture, and the location of Gezhou Dam and the Three Gorges Dam. For a long time, relying on herunique resource endowment, Yichang has cultivated such pillar industries as fine chemical industry, food and biomedicine, high-end equipment manufacturing and modern logistics, and has become a developed comprehensive industrial city. “In 2020, in the face of a flood disaster, Yichang Municipal Party Committee and the city government actively offered support and helptoforeign enterprises including Lexing Red Flag Cable, which displayedthe first-class business environment of the city. We will fully support Yichang toopen wider to the outside world, to expand international exchanges and cooperation to make more friends and raise its visibility and tobecomea famous international city.” he added.

　　Kang and his party visited the Three Gorges Project, Yichang Renfu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Yichang Jinbao Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd..

　　Martin Walley, the British Deputy Consul General in Wuhan, and M. Rodolphe Girault, the French Economic Consul in Wuhan, were among the visitors. The event was also participated by Feng Xiguo, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Provincial Committee of the CPC, and Zhou Zhengying, the Deputy Mayorof Yichang.