City’s time to shine

The eyes of New Zealand mayors and international visitors will be on Palmerston North’s Festival of Cultures in March.

The timing of the annual celebration of the city’s multicultural community coincides with the annual New Zealand Sister Cities conference.

Palmerston North’s sister cities of Missoula in Montana, USA, and Guiyang in Guizhou province, China, will be sending delegations, as well as ‘‘friendly relations’’ city Mihara in Japan.

And boosting civic attendance will be the city’s hosting of a Local Government New Zealand’s council meeting involving many of the country’s mayors.

City council international relations manager Toni Grace said the conference and festival would be an opportunity to showcase not just Palmerston North’s cultural diversity, but to raise awareness among residents of the reach of the city’s international links.

Each of the visiting delegations would be encouraged to provide displays at the festival so local people could find out more about them and their shared interests.

Mayor Grant Smith, who led a delegation to Missoula last year, said the efforts made to strengthen relationships with international cities were starting to tap into the potential for business deals and education exchanges.

He said the Sister Cities conference this year would be one of the biggest the organisation had held.

While Palmerston North was one of the group’s newest members, it had become one of the most active. The theme of the conference is ‘‘prosperity through partnership’’.

Grace said the conference was fully paid for through registration fees and sponsorship, so the costs would not be a burden for Palmerston North ratepayers.

Topics to be explored included how to get the most out of a variety of relationships including sister cities in terms of economic and community development.

The formal dinner and awards evening on Friday, March 22, would also be well-attended by members of the Diplomatic Corp, who were regular visitors to the Festival of Cultures.

Smith said he was looking forward to the results of a government-funded report that would use Palmerston North as a case study to show the benefits for ratepayers in fostering international relationships. ‘‘The city would be much poorer without this international programme.’’