Sister city deal closed

Mayor praises council’s efforts after draft agreement approved

TOOWOOMBA will soon have a new sister city in China, after a draft agreement to establish formal ties with Yuecheng District were approved last week.

The sister city agreement with the 600,000-strong district of Shaoxing City will be the culmination of more than two years of trade negotiations between the two governments.

In the report handed down to councillors on Wednesday, the agreement would strengthen ties over trade, tourism, cultural practices and education.

“The objective here is to get a bit more certainty about what each party is expecting to get out of this,” TRC economic development officer Shamus Garmany said.

“In time, we’ve been indicated through signing a sister city agreement with Yuecheng, we will progress closer to signing an agreement with Shaoxing City, which has a much larger population.

“We have had a good relationship with Yuecheng over the past 12 months.”

A group of officials from the larger province of Zhejiang (which Shaoxing is within) will arrive next month before Mayor Paul Antonio leads a council delegation to China in November.

In the meeting, Cr Antonio said the deal would open up opportunities to negotiate with the much larger neighbouring city of Hangzhao.

“It hasn’t been easy getting to know these people, but the fact we were able to partner with Yuecheng, followed by Shaoxing (is encouraging),” he said.

“But the important thing to me and one of the things we’re arranging when we go to China is to in fact engage with the Chamber of Commerce in Hangzhao.

“Hangzhao is an emerging tier-one city with 25 million people, so we’re trying to make that meeting happen.”

Toowoomba has sister city agreements with Paju in South Korea, Taktsuki in Japan and Whanganui in New Zealand.