On March 31, Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office (NXFAO) held an online meeting with officials from Mendoza Province of Argentina, so as to deepen Ningxia’s exchanges and cooperation with the new world wine regions and promote the high-quality development of its wine industry. Fan Huafeng, Deputy Director-General of NXFAO, and Mario Lazzáro, General Manager of ProMendoza, attended the meeting and delivered remarks respectively.

Fan Huafeng noted that in recent years, through senior officials’ visits as well as economic and cultural promotions, Ningxia and Mendoza maintained close contact and reached consensus on carrying out practical cooperation in wine, education, culture and tourism. He said that Mendoza, as the most representative province in Argentina’s wine industry, has a time-honored winemaking history and culture. With a well-developed system consisting of advanced technologies and equipment, professionals, established brands and favorable marketing strategies, Mendoza boasts a distinctive competitive edge and would be complementary to Ningxia’s wine industry with broad cooperation prospects. The two sides could take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Argentina as an opportunity to accelerate the establishment of international friendship city relations and create favorable conditions for more friendly ties between wine regions and wineries, thus expanding our cooperation in the wine industry and other fields.

Speaking highly of the fruitful outcomes resulted from friendly exchanges between Mendoza and Ningxia, Lazzáro expressed his willingness to make joint efforts with NXFAO to play a better role as a bridge. He said vigorous efforts should be made to establish a contact mechanism for the government departments, organizations and enterprises in the wine industry of the two sides, so as to advance cooperation concerning wine technologies, professionals, products and markets, and enrich people-to-people exchanges.

The two sides agreed that the signing of the MOU on the Establishment of International Friendship City Relations Between Ningxia and Mendoza should be initiated at an early date, creating platforms for further cooperation between wine regions, enterprises and universities. Going forward, NXFAO will maintain close contact with ProMendoza to facilitate relevant work in a prudent and orderly manner.