The First BRICS Friendship Cities and Local Governments Cooperation Forum opened in the beach-side resort of Sanya, Hainan Province on December 2, 2011. Jointly sponsored by the CPAFFC and the China International Friendship Cities Association (CIFCA), the forum focused on deepening cooperation between the world’s five major emerging economies with “Broad Vision, Shared Prosperity, Developing Friendship Cities, Promoting Cooperation” as the theme. Over 300 politicians, scholars and business people from the five BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—met at the two-day forum to foster further communications and discuss shared concerns amid global uncertainties.

Lu Yongxiang, Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee; Bai Lichen, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee; Cheng Siwei, former Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, Xu Kuangdi, former Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee; CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin; CIFCA President Chen Haosu; Jiang Sixian, Deputy Governor of Hainan; Alberto Kleiman, Chief of the International Advisory of the Under Secretariat of Federative Affairs of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil; Moema Isabel Passos Gramacho, Mayor of Lauro de Freitas in Brazil; Russian Ambassador to China Sergey Razov; Sergey Paramonov, Executive Vice President of Russian International Friendship Cities Association; Davanagere H. S. Murthy, Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council of India; Soviet Lekganyane, MEC of Limpopo, and Nomusa Dube, MEC of Kwazulu-Natal Province of South Africa, and diplomats of the BRICS countries attended the opening ceremony and the keynote speech session.

Five panel discussions on food safety, financial crisis, eco-friendly urban development, energy strategies, and cultural communication were held. The participants agreed that as the world multipolarization and economic globalization were developing in depth, it was of great importance for the BRICS countries to strengthen cooperation, open up new fields of cooperation and borrow each other’s successful experiences to explore new ways and models of development and increase cities’ sustainability. Cooperation and exchanges between friendship cities provided an important channel to achieve this goal. They pledged to work with concerted efforts to promote bilateral and multilateral exchanges between friendship cities and cooperation between local governments, making positive contributions to world peace and prosperity.

The forum concluded with the establishment of the mechanism of BRICS Friendship Cities and Local Governments Cooperation Forum and the adoption of the First BRICS Friendship Cities and Local Governments Cooperation Declaration.
The next forum will be held in India in 2012.