From April 13 to 15, a delegation from Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) led by John Inglis, Marketing Manager and Dean of International Curriculum, visited Ningxia with the facilitation of the Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office. During their visit, the delegation conducted in-depth exchanges with officials from the Ningxia Helan Mountains’ Eastern Foot Wine Education Institute, Food and Wine School of Ningxia University and North Minzu University on topics including the cultivation of professionals in viticulture and wine making technology, and faculty and students exchanges. They reached preliminary consensus on cooperation paths, training models, operation and management, curriculum design, etc. The two sides expressed their willingness to strengthen communication and collaboration under the framework of international friendship city relations between the two regions, so as to maintain long-term and stable partnership, continue to carry out exchanges and cooperation across the board, and promote friendly interactions between the two regions with practical cooperation in education.

Since the establishment of the international friendship city relations between Marlborough of New Zealand and Ningxia in 2017, fruitful cooperation has been carried out in the fields of culture, tourism, education, agriculture and wine industry. Several universities and colleges in Ningxia have established partnerships with the NMIT, reaching agreement on cooperatively-run education programs including joint training and faculty and students exchanges. Under the mechanism of “Friendship City + Project” and “Friendship City + Industrial Projects”, the two sides have continued to build new ties of practical cooperation and new platforms for friendly exchanges, which have injected new impetus to consolidating and enriching the friendship city relations, promoted international exchanges and cooperation of Ningxia, and facilitated the development of relations between China and New Zealand. Marlborough was given the Friendship City Award for Exchanges and Cooperation with China at the 2018 China International Friendship Cities Conference. Ningxia-Marlborough international friendship city relations won the Award for the Best Commercial Project at the Sister Cities New Zealand 2021 Annual Conference.