Sister city swooning
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
Hutt City has four international sister-city relationships with Minoh, Japan, Tempe, USA, and friendly city agreements with Chinese cities Xi?an and Taizhou. The Taizhou link is fairly new but becoming increasingly active at an official level as it holds the most significant economic potential. Hutt City Visitor manager David Hancock says the council ?are constantly working on international relations, not just the sister cities?. ?It?s nice to build relations, but we would prefer to find opportunities first and then build the relationships.? He says some sister-city links have been very beneficial, such as ties built with the Japanese city of Minoh. ?This relationship has great economic benefits for the community, they send over teacher, rugby and student groups who spend over $70 thousand in the local economy. ?There is no effort to do that, and it more than doubles the amount we put aside to support the sister city scheme every year,? says Mr Hancock. The Hutt Minoh House Friendship Trust has been one spin-off that contributes to cultural pursuits in the community. ?Whenever [council] travel to our sister cities we organise local businesses and schools children to come with us to get a feel of how things work over there. ?Travelling with the mayor opens many doors they would never get through on their own, but it?s up to them as to what they do with the opportunity.? He says Japan has already invested $20 thousand to secure their next round of trips to the region. ?That doubles the budget for the whole of Hutt City international relations, and helps draw people who would not frequently travel to Wellington.? Mr Hancock says there is always a lot of interest in trips to Japan and China, and travelling with sister city delegations can gain people footholds in the country. ?We need to exploit these trips as much as possible; pulling in opportunities from China will be good for us. ?Getting into their technology sector is very important,? he says. Mr Hancock says if people have interests in any part of the world they should find out if any New Zealand council has a relationship with that area and try to utilise it. ?Not only New Zealand, people should look to Australia?s sister cities and organise international ties through them. ?What we spend [on sister city relations] is a drop in the ocean for the benefits of what comes back,? says Mr Hancock. For more information visit: www.sistercities.org.nz
