The leader
of China's inland province of Gansu has expressed hope that cooperation with
Japan will help develop the inland region.
The leader made the comment when he met a 160-member Japanese delegation
visiting the province on Saturday.
He told the delegation that development of inland China depends on exchanges
with foreign countries. He stressed the importance of the relationship with
Japan, saying he has high hopes for investment from the country.
The head of the Japanese delegation, former home affairs minister Takeshi Noda,
replied that Japan is willing to extend help to the inland region.
Many members of the Japanese delegation also visited China back in 1984, at the
height of bilateral relations, on the invitation of Hu Yaobang, General
Secretary of the Communist Party at the time.
They were invited back to China after 23 years by a youth organization under
the Chinese Communist Party to mark the 35th anniversary of normalized
bilateral relations.
After staying in Gansu until Monday, the delegation is to head for Beijing,
where they'll meet China's President Hu Jintao, who was in charge of hosting
the 1984 delegation.