At the invitation of Comité France Chine, the Delegation of the Chinese Mayors led by Ambassador Cheng Tao, Vice President of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA), visited France from January 25 to 30, 2010. Mr. Christian Poncelet, former Senate President of France, and former Prime Ministers Mr. Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Mr. Laurent Fabius, former French Prime Minister met with the delegation respectively. The two sides exchanged views on China-French relations and cooperation between local governments. In Paris, the delegation attended the Spring Festival Gathering of Overseas Chinese hosted by the Chinese Embassy in France.
       CPIFA and Comité France Chine co-sponsored the Fifth Round Table Meeting of Chinese and French Mayors on January 28 in Grenoble. Around 80 people including municipal leaders and city construction principals from Tianjin, Taiyuan, Kunming, Jiamusi, Changzhi, Shuozhou, Guilin, Jincheng, Yuncheng, Foshan, Weihai and Mayors and Deputy Mayors from Grenoble, Montpellier, Tours, Saint Etienne, Aubervilliers, Pau and CEOs of Alstom, Schneider Electric, Suez Environment and Veolia Environment attended the meeting. Under the theme of Green City, Innovative City, the two sides discussed Cooperation between Municipal Governments and Enterprises, City Pollution-free Transportation, Public Management of City Energies and Technologic Innovation of City.  Amb. Cheng Tao and Mr. Michel Destot, Mayor of Grenoble co-chaired the Meeting. Ambassador Kong Quan delivered the written speech.