Logo of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Forum on People-to-People Friendship and the Forum on Friendship Cities in Qingdao, Shandong province
SHANDONG: Kamila Karamanova left her motherland Kazakhstan in 2009 to study at China’s Shandong University due to her profound interest in the country since her school years. That decision changed her life.
In China, she not only improved her Chinese language proficiency, but also learned about foreign trade, and actively participated in international exchanges and cooperation projects.
In 2013, when she heard about the Belt and Road Initiative at her Nazarbayev University, Karamanova was so excited because she knew the initiative means wider, deeper and higher-level international cooperation in various fields between China and other involved countries.
It will be a “bridge of friendship and prosperity between China and Kazakhstan”. She wanted to become a builder of the “bridge”.
Now a manager at Shandong Silk Road Zhongheng Industrial Investment Group, a trading company based in Shandong’s provincial capital Jinan, Karamanova has witnessed great changes in the country, as well as the unprecedented height of China-Kazakhstan ties.
These are “a good example of good-neighbourliness, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation”, she said.
She shared her experience at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Forum on People-to-People Friendship and the Forum on Friendship Cities in Qingdao, Shandong province.
The event attracted about 400 representatives from governments, international organisations, embassies and companies from China and abroad, including Deputy Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Edil Baisalov and Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian House of Representatives Valeri Mitskevich.
With the theme of “Carrying Forward the Shanghai Spirit and Promoting Friendly Cooperation”, the two parallel forums aimed to promote mutual learning between civilisations and people-to-people exchanges while boosting good-neighbourliness and friendly cooperation among members of the SCO.
“Guided by the ‘Shanghai Spirit’, we will make good use of the forums as a bridge and bond to promote non-governmental exchanges, deepen sub-national economic and trade cooperation, strengthen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and strive to achieve more practical results,” Lin Wu, Party secretary of Shandong province, said at the opening ceremony of the forums.
Shen Yueyue, vice-chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairperson of the Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation Commission of the SCO, said the organisation prioritises friendliness and cooperation, and is paving a friendly path that meets each country’s development needs. — China Daily/ANN
