China is making great effort to protect the eco-system, which is a priority in its 13th Five-Year Plan. According to initial estimates, China's annual input into environmental protection in the past few years approached 200 billion dollars. At the local level, environmental input is also rising rapidly. China has the demand and the market, while the US has the technology and the expertise. Washington, with its strengths in environmental protection, coastline protection in particular, can step up its cooperation with those Chinese provinces that invest heavily in this area or coastal provinces in China. The first China-US Climate Leaders Summit recently held in Los Angeles was as great success. Many of our provinces or states are playing an exemplary role by setting emissions reduction targets more ambitious than national ones. Such efforts need to be recognized and encouraged. Exchange and cooperation in environmental protection at the local level should be part and parcel of our joint efforts to address climate change and promote sustainable development.

I deeply value the cultural and people-to-people exchanges between our two countries. Relatives and friends become closer if they visit each other more. This is also true for Chinese and Americans. Exchanges bring deeper friendship and more vigorous practical cooperation. Local governments from both sides need to engage each other extensively in areas like education, tourism, sports and youth and encourage more interactions between people from all walks of life.

I know as governors, your are most concerned about employment. Cooperation in the above-mentioned areas will promote growth and create jobs, thus bringing benefits to our peoples.

The Chinese provinces and cities represented today are each home to dozens of, or even over a hundred, universities. In some provinces, university students number over a million. When I was Governor of Zhejiang back in 2006, I attended a signing ceremony for a joint initiative between Wenzhou University and Kean University to establish the Wenzhou-Kean University. After years of efforts, this university was finally up and running last year and is making good progress today. Also in Zhejiang, nearly 100 primary and secondary schools have established sister-school relationships with their US counterparts with robust exchanges. We also need to explore various ways of education cooperation and nurture high-caliber people that meet the need of our societies in the future. In the next three years, China will support a total of 50,000 Chinese and American students to study in each other's countries, and the US will provide opportunities to as many as one million American students to learn Chinese by 2020. We will hold the Chinese-US Tourism Year in 2016. These measures will provide more platforms for greater cultural and people-to-people exchanges at the sub-national level. I hope that we can all add building blocks to the bridge of Chinese-American friendship.

Chinese people often say, "Seize the moment", while westerners believe in "making hay while the sun shines." Now is the prime time for China-US sub-national cooperation. I hope your will seize the moment, build on the momentum and work together to write a new chapter of China-US sub-national cooperation.