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Related documents: Position paper on Sister State and Sister
City Relations Between Australia and China Chamber letter to Sister City News Information about cities
and provinces in China. |
MAKING SISTER CITY RELATIONS WORK FOR THE ECONOMIC 12 March 2002 Sponsoring organisations: Local Government and
Shires Associations NSW (LGSA) Australian Sister
Cities Association (ASCA) Australia China
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New South Wales (ACCCI) |
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Good morning every one and
first, may I say, thank you to the LGA for its interest and being the
catalyst in organising this forum. In my presentation today I will
give you a snapshot overview of the ASCA and
speak a little on the history of the Sister City movement, and also talk a little about successful cultural and economic
exchanges by a few of our members with their Sister Cities. The ASCA is an organisation made
up of around 130 member councils and individual members. We hold a national conference every year
and the delegates elect a 7 member executive board every two years. Board membership is honorary and we have no
paid positions in the organisation. We have been operating for over 21 years
promoting sister city programs and teaching communities in the art of making
friends for Australia ASCA’s register of Affiliations
shows that Australia-wide we now have 459 sister city relationships (under
that title, or twinning, or friendship arrangements). Alphabetically, they range from Austria to
Yugoslavia. Numerically Japan leads
with 93, closely followed by the USA with 87, then the United Kingdom with
50, New Zealand with 43 and China with 30.
The latter has a number of cities of varying sizes seeking an Australian
sister city. ASCA has developed a very
successful program to encourage young people to participate at the annual
conference. Over the past 15 years a Youth Adviser has been appointed to the
ASCA executive. We also support members in their
endeavours to involve young people effectively at the local level. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the
founder of the Sister City program in the USA was a man of vision and in 1956
said at the 10th anniversary conference of Sister Cities International that - "I have served as a General
in the greatest military force that the world has ever known and I have had
the responsibility of being President of the most powerful nation in history
and yet I have been unsuccessful in achieving International peace and
understanding. Global conflicts still
exist!" I firmly
believe and ASCA believes that it is only through the people to people
concept and through exchanges of people from all walks of life, including
young people, in our communities and with programs designed to facilitate
better understanding, cultural tolerance and friendship will our countries
realise true success in achieving world peace and international good will. The promotion of adult and
student international exchange is a vital concept of Sister Cities. And ASCA So it is
important to use the human resources that are available in our communities. -
The playgrounds of our schools - the clubrooms of our sporting associations -
our licensed clubs, - our service clubs and in the youth centres of our
community. I would
suggest at this time some of you are sitting there thinking my community
needs to look for economic benefits from a sister city relationship. These are some of the questions that I am
regularly asked. I can
reassure you that the benefits of trade and tourism etc. will be natural
offshoots of your sister city programs and youth exchanges. This doesn’t mean you don’t include
business and commerce in your programs. Many deals have been struck at trade
shows organised by people involved in sister city committees. Each year ASCA conducts a
national conference. This conference helps people from all
walks of life, young and not so young to participate in workshops, networking
and discussion. Listen to experienced speakers both nationally and
international and to learn about the how’s and whys of running sister city
programs. In 1983 ASCA introduced a
National Awards program, to recognise excellence in its sister cities’
activities This year The National Awards
had 39 entries in over 12 categories once again highlighting the depth and
breadth of the activities and programs of Australia’s sister cities. Each year the awards committee
produces a book outlining all of the projects with a summary of each. ASCA
has built up an incredible data base of the do’s and dont’s of cultural,
educational, sporting and economic projects under taken by our members right
across Australia and these resources are available to our members “ don’t
reinvent the wheel” From these entries I have chosen
6 case studies for my talk today, of these case studies I have chosen two
from Japan and four from china. Sister city programs with Japan, USA, England, NZ have been
undertaken for many years with great success and many benefits to each city
and the country involved. The majority of Chinese sister
city relationships until fairly recently have been mainly economic and
technical with Australian cities feeling it was a one way street with little
return for their community and increasing concerns about intellectual
property rights on technical exchange. This concern can be overcome by ensuring a business plan
outlining the benefits for each city and projects to be undertaken by each
city is produced and signed by both cities as part of the sister city
agreement. Each community needs to
stipulate what their expectations of the relationship are. In 1989,
when the BANKSTOWN CITY, AUSTRALIA AND
SUITA CITY, JAPAN twinning was formalised, a series of some 25 different
programs were adopted ranging from youth activities to economic and administrative
exchanges. One important program was
the running of a triathlon in Bankstown.
After an enormous amount of work by the sister city committee, the day
of the triathlon and associated "fun run" arrived. The contest included a 1km swim in the
Georges River and a 32km cycle over a most testing course of downhill sharp
turns. The triathlon proved to be a
huge success with an atmosphere to rival the world championships. Over 200 Suita citizens competed with over
300 Australians. The costs
involved in staging the typhoon triathlon and the associated sister city
sports exchange amounted to a shortfall of approximately $10,000 being met by
the Bankstown sister city committee.
This was a very small amount of money for an inaugural event and a
conservative estimate from an independent hotelier in Bankstown set the
community income at a figure in excess of $3 million. Five hundred people from two
worlds came together on a weekend in January to learn, to understand, to
compete, to communicate and to celebrate. Their achievements are testimony to the potency of friendship
and the sister city program TAMWORTH, SISTER CITY OF CHAOYANG DISTRICT in Bejing has proven to be
of enormous value to Tamworth, Australia and the Sister Cities movement. A
Tamworth company obtained a million-dollar contract during a Sister Cities
visit to China. A delegation from Tamworth was
invited by their sister city Chaoyang to attend the second annual Chaoyang
Beijing Business Festival in September last year. The council responded to
the invitation sending a 68 person strong delegation of civic, community and
business leaders. The delegation was led by deputy
mayor Cr Barry Murphy, and included councillor John Green the Sister Cities
Committee chairman, Brian Crowe managing director Australian Pavement
Management Systems and Anthony Steele managing director the specialist truck
body building company, Obieco, Oxley High School students and community
members. Australian Pavement Management
Systems secured a $1 million contract to resurface 100 kilometres of road
pavement in China during the visit. And
stated this was the first of possible long term contracts The delegation resulted in wide
positive publicity in the media. Tamworth signed a Friendship
Agreement with China in 1994 and since 1995 has conducted annual visits to
the Chaoyang District. These previous
visits have been on a cultural level with the delegations of groups averaging
around 34 people over the past seven years. The sister city committee also
conducted a successful student and teacher exchange in 2000 between
Tamworth’s Oxley High School and the Beijing’s Senior Vocational High School
for Ethnic Minorities. With a similar
exchange also conducted during 2001. These projects by Tamworth are
exceptional and should act as an example of “best practice” for all
Australian cities. MAROOCHY SHIRE IN QUEENSLAND has the
city of Xiamen in China as a sister city. Each year Xiamen hosts The China Fair for International
Investment and Trade Sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic
Co-operation with Fujian Province and autonomous regions. The joint hosts. Maroochy has previously won an
ASCA national award for its successes in generating trade outcomes for local
business through its sister city program and the International Investment and
Trade fair of some $10 million Australian. Maroochy Shire has attended all
five China Fairs for International Investment and Trade events and has had
further success in attracting $5 million in local investment as a result of
their participation in last years Fair. This is a great success story
for Maroochy Shire and shows an effective means of generating local
investment by Chinese investors in their community. All brought about by its Sister
City relationship with Xiamen. CITY OF GREATER DANDENONG Over the last three years, the
Cities of Greater Dandenong and Xuzhou, China have strived to develop an
international relationship and build greater communication and understanding. In 1999 the Sister Cities agreed
to embark on an exciting cultural exchange project to further develop their
partnership and provide a snap shot of life in the two cities. Each City selected 30
photographs in order to illustrate community life and the breadth of issues
that had impacted on the two cities over the year. A commemorative booklet
featuring the images and captions of the Greater Dandenong photos was
developed. In addition the
photographs were exchanged between the two cities. Greater Dandenong,
developed a collectors edition postcard range, along with an Internet version
of the exhibition commemorating this collaborative event. Through these images the
community was able to examine the diversity of modern society. The complete collection of 60 images
provided the opportunity to compare the contrast of life in the two cities,
and the community could get a feel for the people and places. The photographic cultural
exchange exhibition welcomed 400 visitors in the four weeks it was on display
at the Walker St. Gallery in Dandenong.
A further 30,360 visitors passed through the Springvale Library where
it was on display for one month. BUNDABERG After the signing of sister-city
agreement between Bundaberg and Nanning - China in 1998, no fewer than eight
exchanges have taken place. These
included civic delegations, an agricultural delegation and a visit by a group
of Chinese students. The Centenary of
Federation Celebrations 2001 provided the people of Bundaberg with the
perfect opportunity for their first cultural exchange. Following a meeting with the
Mayor of Nanning and the Nanning Foreign Affairs Office, it was proposed that
a group of young dancers representing Nanning would fly to Bundaberg late in
January 2001 and perform several ethnic dances as part of Bundaberg’s
festivities. The Centenary of
Federation Committee was delighted with the arrangements and plans went ahead
for the various venues. The Nanning Troupe, accompanied
by a representative from the Nanning Cultural Administration, was taken to
many of Bundaberg’s historic and tourist spots for the first two days, amid
practice sessions and a workshop.
Their performances in the City Central Business District pavilion and
at the Botanic Gardens were the highlight of the Centenary of Federation
program. Since the Sister City inception
a steady flow of exchanges has taken place in the fields of city government,
education, culture and industry. In
2000, a group of agriculture representatives were invited to Bundaberg to see
Agro Trend, a nationally recognised exhibition of farm products, machinery
and modern technology and to discuss possible ways of exchanging farming
methods and information. They inspected different types
of irrigation and farming methods. Trial plots of high-density cane planting
were inspected, as well as specially built computerised irrigation sprays and
GPS-equipped tractors. Technology was a keen topic of conversation. The delegation met their counterparts in
city planning and tourism as well as parliamentarians, sports and school
officials, City Councillors, Fruit and Vegetable Growers representatives,
officers from Bundaberg Sugar and other major business people in the
City. It was a very fruitful meeting,
which outlined three areas for future planning- cultural exchanges, tourism
development and the exchange of cane farming technology. Bundaberg has also established
sister city links with schools in China and Japan At both primary and
secondary level. Working with their sister city community committees in
Nanning and Settsu City, “Sister” schools were found and initial links began
with letters, postcards, personal photographs and school documentation. Five schools began the program and still
continue to this day. Schools exchanging letters,
postcards, photos and school information, students communicate by Internet,
e-mail. Homestay makes exchanges not
only cheaper but also culturally more effective and pleasurable with
recipients often becoming friends for life. Bundaberg Christian College -
home hosted students from Nanning last year and a planning return visit by
its students to Nanning this year. Sporting Exchanges are being
planned with Soccer groups. Melbourne/Osaka On a very professional scale is
the Yamaha Osaka cup, otherwise known as the Melbourne/Osaka double-handed
yacht race. The Yamaha Osaka cup is
Australia’s most important international yachting event and the world's
longest longitudinal yacht race. It
covers a distance of 5,500 nautical miles starting from Melbourne, Australia
and finishing in Osaka, Japan. The
inaugural Yamaha Osaka cup was held in 1987 as a celebration of the 120th
anniversary of the port of Osaka and in recognition of the Sister City and
port relationships with the city of Melbourne and the port of Melbourne. The active support of the local community
proved to be one of the major strengths of the promotional activities
associated with the race. Melbourne City also sponsored
the twinning of the Osaka/Melbourne chambers of manufacturers, which has been
a successful means of generating business contacts. It has been conservatively estimated that
in one 18-month period, Melbourne sister city programs helped to achieve
economic returns to Australia in excess of $40 million. This bears testimony to the fact
that in spreading goodwill internationally, a council can generate good
public relations at home. It is a
legitimate use of a small percentage of local government expenditure when it
is directed towards a community-based sister cities program that maximises
the contribution, efforts and needs of the community. With
rapidly advancing technology and the emergence of the global city becoming a
reality, the development and fostering of sister city partnerships, their
programs and exchanges will be crucial to your communities throughout this
decade and beyond. And
remember the seeds we plant today and nurture into the next century will
assist in providing an enriched life and better understanding of world
cultures through sister city exchanges for future generations. This year’s National conference
is in Bendigo Vic and the conference committee has been working extremely
hard. This could be a great opportunity for you to take the next step. Come
along and learn about sister cities and the programs that can get you started
on the same road to success as the case studies I have outlined today. Its
not really hard, you don’t have to reinvent that wheel and ASCA is there to
support and advise all along the way. That’s our business and we want you!
Besides I know it will be an exciting conference with all of us a looking
forward to meeting and networking once again. I hope to see you there. And a finally as the world still
reels from the dastardly deeds by terrorists in the USA. And with hatred and suspicion throughout
the world at present, the essence of the sister city movement could not be
more relevant. The concept was born out of a dream for world peace by the
then President Eisenhower it has been kept alive by ordinary people dedicated
to that dream and will continue through the commitment of people to people
across the world. THANK YOU |
