On April 20, Ningxia and Marlborough of New Zealand, an international friendship region of Ningxia, held an online meeting, reviewing the fruitful cooperation over the past five years since their establishment of friendly relations in 2017 and discussing cooperation possibilities in the future. Fan Huafeng, Deputy Director-General of NXFAO, and Dean Heiford, Manager of Economic, Community and Support Services of Marlborough, attended and addressed the meeting.

Ningxia and Marlborough engaged in active and practical cooperation since 2017. In the wine industry, the two sides built the Xige Estate jointly. The winery introduced an intelligent temperature-control winemaking system of Vinwizard from New Zealand. Chateau Yuhuang and Castaly Winery invited David Tyney, a well-known winemaker from Marlborough, to work in Ningxia. Wineries including Ho-lan Soul (Ningxia) International Winery, Chateau Bacchus, and Chateau Huahao sent young technicians to study winemaking technologies in Marlborough. In education, the School of Food and Wine of Ningxia University, North Minzu University and Ningxia Normal University established long-term partnerships with Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT). They signed agreements on visiting scholar programs, joint education programs, etc. These cooperation projects carried out via the platform of friendly relations enhanced the exchanges and friendship between the two places and delivered fruitful results. Marlborough was given the Friendship City Award for Exchanges and Cooperation with China at the 2018 China International Friendship Cities Conference. Ningxia-Marlborough friendly relations won the Award for the Best Commercial Project at the Sister Cities New Zealand 2021 Annual Conference.

At the meeting, the two sides fully recognized the achievements in the past five years and made in-depth discussion on future cooperation. They reached consensus on the following matters: expanding partnerships between the universities and schools of Ningxia and Marlborough, stepping up all-round cooperation in the wine industry by sharing wine technologies, exploring the cooperation prospects in health care and tourism, and strengthening people-to-people exchanges in the post-pandemic era through cooperation programs in tourism. As this year marks the fifth anniversary of the establishment of friendly relations, Ningxia will hold an array of activities including the China (Ningxia) International Wine Culture and Tourism Expo, youth exchange programs and art exhibitions to deepen the friendship between the two places.