Staff members of CLAIR Sydney visited Wellington City Council to discuss sister cities relations with Sakai city, Japan. They met with Tom Yuan, International Relations Manager and Aiko Collins, International Relations Advisor.
Wellington and Sakai city will celebrate 25 years of the sister city relationship in 2019. They are expecting to collaborate on several milestone event projects including a proposed delegation from Sakai, youth, sports and arts exchanges. Building on the strong and trusting relationship, Wellington City Council has been working closely with local organisations and businesses to develop economic relations with Sakai.
Wellington City Council thanked CLAIR for their ongoing support of the Wellington Japan Festival. The newly established Wellington Japan Festival Trust, The Embassy of Japan and Wellington City Council look forward to cooperating with CLAIR for future festivals.
The annual Local Government Exchange and Cooperation Seminar was discussed and Wellington City Council showed interest in sending senior officials to attend the seminar. The seminar provides an excellent opportunity to learn about policies and challenges of Japanese local governments.
CLAIR Sydney would like to continue to have more dialogue with local councils in New Zealand, as well as support Japanese local governments’ activity in New Zealand.