Mayor Patricia Gould and Nanping, China

As you may be aware, I recently led a delegation of five people to Albury's sister city, Nanping, in China. We succeeded in moving our relationship to a new level.

High-level government officials acknowledged many times that it was my second visit to Nanping. They very clearly value that Albury has made this gesture and took our visit very seriously. We were accompanied by the Mayor, Vice Mayor or Deputy Mayor, as we gained an insight into local manufacturing, tourism and educational facilities.

These government officials are very influential and have extensive important portfolios that are more akin to state-level politics in Australia; for instance the Vice Mayor, Mr Lin Zhongle, is responsible for trade.

Discussion at this level must occur before the door opens to opportunities in China.

Nanping Mayor, Gong Qinggai, accepted my invitation to lead a delegation to Albury next year. He is very interested to learn more about Albury and see first-hand all that our city has to offer. He repeated many times that he wanted Albury and Nanping to be like brother and sister and for a solid understanding of one anothers cultures to underpin great opportunities in commerce, tourism, education and the sharing of knowledge and expertise.

It is still early days, but we also discussed the potential for joint tourism ventures. There is great scope for us to learn from the level of tourism expertise in Nanping and we may be able to develop packages for visitors from our Sister City. It is my hope that Nanping travel agents will be able to promote Albury as a destination. 

The Albury delegation spent time in Wuyisan, an area within the Nanping municipality that is renowned for its clean rivers, mountain scenery and ecotourism. We have brought back with us a sense of how much we could learn. Nanping has set aside 75% of the city's land area for natural landscapes, compared to 32% in Albury.

Our delegation included two local principals, who were both keen to establish links with schools in China.

Our investment in the Sister City relationship meant Nanping's Mayor was happy to introduce our principals to Chinese education officials.

The visit's primary focus was to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between Holy Spirit Primary School and Shiyan Primary School, and another between Xavier High School and Jianjing High School.

On top of that, the schools agreed to develop a framework for short-term teacher exchanges, which will hopefully start in the second half of 2010. They are also investigating the possibility of student visits and exchanges, with the possibility of some Jianjing High School graduates completing their senior high school years at Xavier.

For now, local students will be able to start emailing Chinese students from the start of next term. It will be a wonderful opportunity for young people to learn about one another's language, culture and history and build friendships.

The delegation also received a warm welcome from Wuyi University, where potential links with Charles Sturt University were discussed. Professor Allan Curtis, Head of Campus, anticipates visiting Wuyi University soon.

While in Nanping I also signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which formalises the relationship between our two cities.

I am confident our relationship with Nanping will be worthwhile. Some suggestion of the potential it represents for Albury is the success of Albury-based artificial insemination business, ABS Australia, which recently sent bulls to the Nanping area for the first time. Fourteen Albury bulls arrived in China in February to enhance the country's dairy industry and further 16 will be sent by the end of this year.

It was this business venture that led Nanping to seek a Sister City relationship with Albury.

We must keep sight of the valuable opportunities this relationship offers us and maintain realistic expectations of how quickly it will be achieved.

There is a Chinese proverb that a Chinese official once used to describe the long-term potential of sister city relationships: "Our generation plants the tree, the next generation sits in the shade".

Mayor Patricia Gould OAM