China’s Hainan province eyes agreement with Iloilo City

ILOILO CITY—The Hainan Foreign Affairs office of China is eyeing to establish a sisterhood agreement with Iloilo City, according to the head of the city’s Local Economic Investment and Promotion Office (Leipo).

In an interview, following her two-week intensive training on the Tropical Agriculture Advanced Study and Research program, Ritchel Gavan said that the city was the only Philippine local government unit invited.

According to her, the learning session gathered 20 participants from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Malaysia, Micronesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

“There are other areas for economic cooperation,” Gavan said.

The Leipo head added that Hainan is being positioned as a special economic zone in China, and is on track to become a free-port area.

“There is a demand to learn English because they are opening up,” she pointed out. “These are [just some of the] reasons they wanted to establish ILOILO CITY Local Economic Investment and Promotion Office Head Ritchel Gavan

the agreement with [our] city.”

In education, Iloilo City’s status as a “center of excellence” will create employment for local teachers and business for schools, as Hainan would send their students to learn English in Iloilo, Gavan explained.

Also, it could boost tourist arrivals in this highly urbanized city because Hainan has the largest number of Chinese nationals overseas.

“They want to see other areas of cooperation, apart from agribusiness,” explained Gavan, who also delivered a speech at the closing ceremony of the training.

She further stated that they would be anticipating for the Hainan Foreign Affairs office to send a letter formally stating its intention for a sisterhood agreement.