Council attracts second Friendship City
Published on 14 August 2018
A city of 4.5 million people in China’s Guangdong Province, Huizhou, has reached out to Rockhampton Regional Council to form a Friendship City relationship after Council led a successful trade mission to the city last year.
Today Councillors unanimously voted in favour to enter into an agreement with the Huizhou which will become Rockhampton’s second Friendship City.
Rockhampton Region Mayor Margaret Strelow said the agreement will broaden Council’s international engagement activities which is a key focus of Advance Rockhampton’s Economic Development Strategy.
“Late last year Deputy Mayor Cr Rutherford, Deputy CEO Ross Cheesman and officers from our Advance Rockhampton team were invited by the Huizhou Government to attend their major Agriculture Expo which provides a platform for trade and investment opportunities,” Mayor Strelow said.
“From there, we were fortunate to strike up some very positive discussions about how the two cities could collaborate and we identified a number of areas of joint opportunity, enough to justify a formal relationship to be formed.”
Given the respective attributes of Rockhampton and Huizhou, Council’s Advance Rockhampton team recognised various sectors in which the two cities could collaborate, complement and provide mutual benefit. These sectors include economic development, education, tourism, arts and culture, and particularly agriculture.
“This is yet another incredible opportunity to strengthen our trade and investment relationship with China by working with Huizhou to explore opportunities to further promote our agribusiness capabilities. It also gives us another platform to develop international partnerships with public and private Chinese entities,” Mayor Strelow said.
This is the second Friendship City agreement for Rockhampton Regional Council. An agreement was signed between Zhenjiang and Council in November 2016 with a view to becoming Sister Cities later this year. Ibusuki currently remains as Council’s sole Sister City.
About Huizhou:
Huizhou, located in the southeast of Guangdong Province and at the northeastern end of the Pearl River Delta, is a historical city in Guangdong Province called Xuzhou Prefecture and Zhenzhou Prefecture respectively in ancient times. It has been included into the administrative division system for more than 1,400 years, and been a political, economic, cultural and transportation center of Dongjiang River Basin since ancient times. There is significant existing capability in the food supply chain. Approximately forty per cent of the food leaving China for Hong Kong passes through the area.
Huizhou is considered to be a third tier city by Chinese standards and has a strong focus on the development of the petro-chemical, industrial chemical, heavy industry, and nuclear energy industries.