Ready for sisterly Expo offer

It already has one sister city in Asia but the Clutha District Council is readying itself for potentially more such relationships after it attends a major event in China next year.

Mayor Juno Hayes, along with Otago's other mayors, is expected to be part of a provincial delegation at the Shanghai World Expo, which runs from May to October 2010, and he has asked the council's district development board to prepare him for any sister-city offers that may come his way.

Council district development manager Julie Pearse said the board was preparing some literature and also advice on the best way to handle such an offer should it come Mr Hayes' way next year.

The council already has a long-standing "friendship agreement" with the Japanese town of Hiyoshi, but Mrs Pearse admitted "things have been quiet there for a while" although the relationship was still a good one.

While the council was not aggressively pursuing any new sister-city relationships, Mrs Pearse said it would be good to be ready for any approaches that might come out of China.

"We are having those conversations now just so we are prepared to entertain any offer that might come our way . . . If the right offer was brokered and it was in the best interests of both parties, then anything is possible."

glenn.conway@odt.co.nz

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