China's Jiangsu to deepen cooperation with Italy's sister city in winter sports

NANJING, China, July 22 (Xinhua) -- East China's Jiangsu Province will strengthen cooperation with Italy's Veneto region, an international sister city of the Chinese economic powerhouse, in ice and snow sports, according to a recent online seminar.

Jiangsu and the Italian region formed an international sister-city relationship in 1998, and the two sides will seize on the successful staging of the Beijing Winter Olympics as a platform to deepen cooperation in winter sports, said Yang Jing, deputy director of Jiangsu's foreign affairs department.

With ice and snow sports facilities covering a total of 630,000 square meters, Jiangsu has actively promoted winter sports across the province in recent years. Winter sports industry revenue of the province has reached 10 billion yuan (1.48 billion U.S. dollars), said Fan Jinhua, an official with the provincial sports department.

Fan added that the 2026 Winter Olympics to be held in Italy would offer an important opportunity for China and Italy to enhance cooperation in winter sports.

Jiangsu's ice and snow sports association and the Veneto winter sports federation inked an agreement on the cooperation and exchange of ice and snow sports projects at the seminar.

With Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Veneto region to co-host the 2026 Winter Games with Milan, the Italian delegation said it would fully support Veneto and Jiangsu to further cooperate in winter sports.