Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is on an official visit to China, today announced a sister city agreement between city of Aurangabad and city of Dunhuang.
"These two cities have deep cultural similarities, which date back to 4th century as the Buddhist monks from the most significant Ajanta caves near Aurangabad carried the art of cave hewing to China, where the earliest caves complex sculpted were Mogao cave near Dunhuang," Fadnavis was quoted as saying in an official press release.
Similarly, the sister cities of Mumbai and Shanghai are looking at one another with much promise of mutual economic prosperity, he said.
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The metropolis would welcome investments from Shanghai (and China in general) in some of the iconic projects in Mumbai like waterfront development, dockyard, high speed trains, Metro rail projects etc.
"We would also look for close relations at Mumbai University for establishing a Chinese language or cultural study centre in memory of Prof Ji Xian Lin, who translated Ramayana in Chinese," Fadnavis said while speaking at the provincial leaders forum in Beijing.
"I have just had a very successful meeting with the Chairperson of Foxconn Terry Gou, in Zengzhou and we have agreed to expand manufacturing in Maharashtra," he added.
China has been a large investor in Maharashtra. Major Chinese companies like Beiqi Foton, Sany Heavy Industries, Haier, Huawei have invested in the state of Maharashtra. The total Chinese investment in Maharashtra is more than 350 million USD as of now.
Chinese Bank, such as ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), is in dialogue with our government to start operations in Maharashtra, he said.
Fadnavis said he looked forward to Chinese investments in Maharashtra in special infrastructure projects like Deep Sea Ports and Trans Sea Projects.
Maharashtra is planning to construct a coastal highway in Mumbai and trans-harbour link across Mumbai harbour, which can benefit from Chinese technology and infrastructure companies.
I am planning a special visit to the province Qingdao to learn from Chinese infrastructure development in coastal area, he said.
The state government is actively looking at partnership in building of smart cities and would welcome Chinese expertise and investment in this sector.
