Invercargill city councillors voted to maintain its relationship with the city at a council meeting earlier this week .
Deputy mayor Tom Campbell said the sister-city relationship appeared to be a strategically important one for the city.
He believed it was Suqian’s turn to travel — delaying the Invercargill delegation’s turn to travel until later in the decade.
"It would be an option to write to them and extend an invitation to come in 2025, given it’s been many years since they’ve been here," he said.
Invercargill city has hosted Suqian delegates on four previous occasions and ICC delegates have travelled to China on five occasions .
Connection with the city of 1.7 million started in 2013 after a memorandum of understanding was signed. A second memorandum of understanding was signed in 2017 to develop further economic opportunities.
Cr Lesley Soper was also in favour of maintaining the link because "it’s a relationship worth keeping".
"This has been a useful relationship for us.
"It speaks for itself — China is our largest trading partner. They are quite important to a lot of Southland firms."
Great South chief executive Chami Abeysinghe endorsed the council’s decision to extend the invitations as she believed the relationship was beneficial for the region as well as an opportunity to promote the educational opportunities offered through the region’s schools and tertiary education system.
"I know from SIT [Southern Institute of Technology] days we had good exposure for Invercargill and support for SIT when we were able to devise a scholarship, which just cemented our relationships with them," she said.
Mayor Nobby Clark believed the relationship should continue between the cities but via correspondence until the end of the triennium — saving ratepayers from having to fund the expense of travel.
By Toni McDonald
