Links to Chinese cities good for business

FRIENDSHIP: HBRC manager of resource use Wayne Wright (left) and colleague Stephen Cave (right), at Pekapeka Regional Park with a Chinese delegation who visited the region recently.

Sister city relationships are more than just a cultural exchange, they are a doorway to business and economic ties between countries on a local level.

Hawke's Bay is unique in that the sister city relationship between Hastings and Guilin, set up 34 years ago by the then mayors Jim O'Connor and Liang Shan, is New Zealand's oldest.

Hastings District Councillor Kevin Watkins said not only was that a significant move for the two cities, but for both countries.

Mr Watkins said the initial relationship was one focused on the respective local governments.

"It soon blossomed out into a series of cultural exchanges," he said.

"While that will always remain as a foundation stone of the relationship, the emphasis in the latter years now has turned more towards how can we leverage more economic advantage from the relationship."

While there is not too much direct trade between the two cities, Mr Watkins said, Guilin has opened doors across China for Hastings and the wider region.

He said the local wine industry has certainly benefited from the relationship.

"Miracle Water is another typical example. All this really came about because people knew about Hastings and its relationship with China, and it's open for business.

"There are lots of businesses here who are doing business with China and our council does what it can to encourage that."

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said the city has a good relationship with Lianyungang, but it also it needed a broader connection with China than just a cultural and social exchange.

"We are keeping in touch with them," he said.

"We are looking at setting more of an economic development industrial benefit type visit.

"While the discussions are just in the early days, we certainly want to wrap that area around it."

Hawke's Bay Regional Council (HBRC) chairman Fenton Wilson spoke of the relationship the region has with Xuzhou.

"Hawke's Bay is apparently the only region in the country to have a region-to-region relationship with a Chinese city."

He said HBRC has a memorandum of understanding with the Xuzhou Chamber of Commerce but the council does not have regular contact with the city - instead it facilitates linking business people from the respective regions.

"We are not proactive with the relationship and I am comfortable with that. But it is certainly a relationship that is worth maintaining," Mr Wilson said.