Sister City Relationships Discussed At Council Meeting
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Invercargill City councillor Ian Pottinger is asking business leaders for political accountability over a sister city relationship with China that has gone quiet.
A report to the council from manager governance Michael Morris revealed Invercargill has two sister cities – Suqian in China and Kumagaya in Japan.
Invercargill also formerly had a sister city relationship with Hobart in Tasmania, which ended in the 1990’s.
The sister city relationship with Kumagaya began in the 1990’s with a formal agreement being signed in 1993. This has been re-signed every ten years, with the recent agreement signed in 2023 for the 30 year anniversary. A delegation has travelled to Kumagaya 11 times since 2003 and a delegation has come to Invercargill seven times.
The sister city relationship between Invercargill and Suqian began in 2013 with a Memorandum of Understanding being signed then and again in 2017.
The last correspondence with Suqian was in May 2023, when Mayor Clark sent a letter congratulating Suqian on the election of their new Mayor, Mr Liu Hao.
The report noted that travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 response has been a factor when looking at this sister city relationship.
Cr Pottinger questioned what had been delivered from that last trip as it was seven years ago, and the MOU was largely about commercial opportunities.
Both the Chamber of Commerce and the then Venture Southland were part of the delegation and were signatories to the MOU.
Deputy Mayor Tom Campbell said it was always impossible to tie increased exports to a sister city agreement.
“We’ve had over $700 million exports through Bluff go to China, and 30% of all Southland’s exports. To me it makes sense to have a sister city agreement with a country that takes 30% of our exports.”
A review of the sister city partnerships was asked for by council in 2011, but Mayor Clark said they took a risk by opting out the relationships, and Cr Campbell said it was just putting them under false pressure.
A report on how best to reactivate the Suqian partnership will come back to the council in due course.