SHANGHAI Mayor Yang Xiong met visiting Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi? last Friday and said Shanghai enjoys good ties with Croatia and has been a sister city of Zagreb for 35 years.

Yang said Shanghai wants to play a bigger role in building closer ties between the two countries within the framework of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the China-CEEC Cooperation.

The mayor said Shanghai is striving to become an international economic, financial, trade and shipping center. Efforts have been made to facilitate foreign investment and trade and open up the financial sector to encourage inbound and outbound investment.