On August 13, Ambassador Fang Qiu attended the “Friendly Shandong·Hometown of Confucius” Culture and Tourism Promotion Conference held in Port of Spain. Mr. Sun Licheng, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of Shandong Provincial People's Congress, and Mr. Videsh Maharaj, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Mr. Davlin Thomas, Deputy Chairman of the National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as nearly 100 guests from culture, industry and commerce, media and other sectors attended the conference.

Ambassador Fang Qiu noted that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Trinidad and Tobago 50 years ago, bilateral mutual-beneficial cooperation has yielded fruitful results and sub-national exchanges have been increasing. The just-concluded Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee emphasized that China will further expand its high-standard opening-up to the international community. China is willing to work with Trinidad and Tobago to deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries, and support Shandong Province and other sub-national regions to strengthen communication and cooperation, enriching the connotation of the bilateral relations.

Vice Chairman Sun Licheng introduced the economic and social development of Shandong Province and expressed the province’s willingness to strengthen friendly exchanges and cooperation with Trinidad and Tobago. High-level officials from the Trinidad and Tobago side stated that this event will inject new vitality into the people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries and Trinidad and Tobago is willing to work with China to promote the continuous development of practical cooperation.

All guests toured around the Shandong Culture and Tourism Exhibition and appreciated the intangible cultural heritage of China such as kites and New Year paintings.