On 23rd February, Ambassador Gao Yanping attended in the city of Haifa the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding on Exchanges and Cooperation for the year of 2012-2014 between the city of Shanghai and the city of Haifa, accompanied by Mr. Dai Yuming, Political Counselor of the Embassy. Mr. Liu Yungeng, Chairman of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, and Mrs. Hedva Almog, Acting Mayor of Haifa, signed the Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the two cities.

Ambassador Gao, Chairman Liu Yungeng and Acting mayor Almog held a friendly conversation before the signing ceremony, and expressed satisfaction with the development of the sister-city relationship between Shanghai and Haifa and showed confidence on future prospects for the cooperation between the two cities. Ambassador Gao stressed that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Israel. It is believed that the friendly cooperation between Shanghai and Haifa will play positive roles in promoting comprehensive development of bilateral relations. Ambassador Gao hoped that through the joint efforts made by the two sides, the cooperation between the two cities would be promoted to a new level and friendship between the two peoples would last forever.