The Shandong International Friendship Cities Conference for Cooperation will be held on Oct 15-20 in the province's cities of Qingdao and Jinan to boost sister-cities cooperation, according to local officials.

Jointly organized by the Shandong provincial government and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, or CPAFFC, the event is themed on "Deepening friendship cities cooperation and sharing development opportunities".

The conference is designed to build a bridge for cooperation and development between all participants, so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Officials said that the event will help Shandong better reach out to the world and help the outside world have a better understanding of the province.

They added that it will also inject impetus for the province's opening-up and high-quality development.

Officials said that the cities of Qingdao and Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan became the first internationally paired sister cities in Shandong province in 1979.

Over the past four decades, Shandong has established sister city relations with 222 administrations in 61 countries and it has established friendly relations with 241 administrations in 51 countries.