Yibin, Columbia’s Sister City Delegates from Columbia’s Sister City in China, Yibin City, met with representatives from the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, the S.C. Department of Commerce, the local World Affairs Council, and the Columbia Office of Economic Development at a breakfast meeting at the Hilton October 29. Yibin City is where the Yangtze River is formed at the confluence of the Min and Jinsha rivers.

The river traffic is picking up at Yibin City due to the recent joint venture set up with Shanghai International Port Group to develop and operate the Port of Yibin. Yibin Port’s Zhicheng port area, the largest port area in Sichuan, began construction last December with a $190 million budget.

The population of the city proper is about 300,000, while the population of the prefecture is more than 3 million. The city’s industry includes substantive operations in electronics, food products, and power generation. The surrounding region is predominately agricultural.

Columbia City Council member E. W. Cromartie Columbia has friends in the liquor business. The largest employer in Yibin is the Wuliangye Group, the makers of Wuliangye, a traditional Chinese distilled liquor. The firm employs 20,000 local people. Wuliangye is 72 percent state owned and provides more than two–thirds of the revenues of Yibin City.

The delegation at the Hilton breakfast included Liaoyuan Ge, vice mayor of Yibin City, Jia Liu, vice director of Yibin Foreign Affairs, and Bangxing Wang, director of Yibin Economic and development Committee. Other members of the delegation represented the Environmental Protection, Work Safety and Exchange divisions of Yibin City.
Liaoyuan Ge, vice mayor, Yibin City
Mayor Bob Coble, mayor of Columbia
Dr. Charles Young, president of Allen University, and Dr. David Swinton, president of Benedict College