The Foreign Affairs (Overseas Chinese Affairs) Office of Hubei Provincial People’s Government has issued permission for the Municipal People’s Government of Wuhan to hold the 2016 Great Rivers Forum.

To seize the opportunity of China’s implementation of the Belt and Road initiativeand the Changjiang Economic Belt strategy, and make the Changjiang Civilization Museum (China’s first museum of great river civilizations) a platform of culture exchanges, the Municipal People’s Government of Wuhan, China’s Changjiang Water Resource Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources and Wuhan University together will hold the 2016 Great Rivers Forum from September 19 to 21, 2016 in Wuhan, China.

Under the theme of Evolution and Sustainable Development of Great River Civilizations, the forum aims to establish a platform of dialogue among great river civilizations around the world and build a bridge of exchanges between Chinese andwestern cultures. The organizer will invite mayors, scholars, museum directors, businessmen and economists from cities in great river basins to Wuhan, discussing the evolution and sustainable development of economy, culture, and ecology of rivers basins, so as to facilitate the common development and prosperity of cities in these areas.

By August 23, the organizing committee of the 2016 Great Rivers Forum has receive dreceipts from 77 distinguished guests inside and outside China. They are from 18 countries and regions, including Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Iran,Israel, Italy, Kyrgyz, Kenya, the Netherlands, Peru, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan(Republic), Uganda, United Kingdom, and United States and so on. The participants include a representative from UNESCO, mayors from sister cities of Wuhan, directors/heads from some world’s first-class museums such as the British Museum and The State Hermitage Museum (Winter Palace), and famous scholars from University of Oxford and Institute of Far Eastern Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences, and some renowned domestic scholars and so on.