Arnie Roblan, speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and Democratic Party representative of Oregon, USA led a delegation to attend the Pingtan-Oregon Ecological Community Conference on the morning of Sept 5 in Pingtan, Fujian province.

Zhang Guangmin, vice chairman of the Fujian Provincial People's Congress, Li Yangzhe, director of the State Energy Conservation Center, and Gong Qinggai, director of the Administrative Committee of the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, also attended the conference.

Zhang noted that Oregon and Fujian became sister provinces in 1984. Since then they have undergone rapid development in economics, trade and environmental protection. He hopes this visit could mark a strong beginning for ecological construction cooperation between Oregon and Fujian province, focusing on Pingtan county in particular.

Gong Qinggai welcomed delegation members and introduced the pilot zone's opening-up and development.

"As a model in ecological construction in the US, Oregon has great experience in sustainable development, energy conservation and environmental protection. We hope our guests can make more valuable suggestions for Pingtan's development and construction, especially for ecological city construction. We also expect to strengthen exchange and cooperation with Oregon, pushing Pingtan's ecological city construction to a higher level," Gong said.

Li said that Pingtan plays a leading and exploratory role in many aspects, one of them being how to achieve rapid development with limited resources and environmental restrictions. He hopes the island county can draw lessons from green, low carbon development experiences across the world, exploring a new way for China's development under new conditions.

The delegation was impressed by Pingtan's development and planning and hoped to engage in comprehensive cooperation with Pingtan in green ecology fields.

The guests also visited Pingtan's Ruyi Town real estate site and the cross-Straits RO-RO passenger wharf.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Michael Thai