It will take one more delegation from China, but Prince George will have a formal sister city in Jiangmen by next year, according to the mayor.
Shari Green returned from her second trip to the Chinese city last week with a promise from Jiangmen politicians to visit and sign a twinning agreement in the coming months.
The twinning agreement itself is a piece of paper but it represents something larger, said Green.
"It's an agreement that we will continue and pledge to each other to work and share in opportunities," she said. "So I think it's significant."
These are agreements which are years in the making, said Green, and this one started in 2010 when the first letter of intent was signed, followed by last year's memorandum of understanding.
"The mayor of Jiangmen and I made a commitment to each other last year that we would work together throughout this year and have some demonstrated commitment to each other about the kinds of projects we wanted to work on together for both of our cities in the categories that we're interested in sharing and we've done that," said Green.
This year, two Chinese delegations came to Prince George - representatives from Wuyi University arrived in May to sign a memorandum of understanding with UNBC and a group of health care officials toured Prince George facilities in October.
"So they've certainly done lots of work at their end as well and we will now be able to continue that momentum together; the government-to-government relationship being solidified will now help our businesses have an open door to their businesses and vice versa and hopefully be able to provide some opportunities for them to have some economic benefit," said Green.
Business is done differently in China than in Canada, Green explained, with no access available to local businesses without the Chinese government's blessing.
"So their government can look at Prince George and see businesses that are here and see that this is a city that is committed to growing its economy and supporting its residents," Green said.
While in Jiangmen the Prince George delegation, consisting of the mayor, city manager Beth James and Initiatives Prince George CEO Heather Oland, met again with the Chinese health group as well as representatives from their education, tourism and economic development sectors.
The group also gifted a satellite historical photo exhibit from the Barkerville Heritage Trust to Wuyi University.
"When we did that unveiling there were just a ton of people there; lots of Canadians who were studying or teaching in Jiangmen came," said Green. "They all had their Canada T-shirts on, so it was really great to see."
A date hasn't yet been set for when a delegation from Jiangmen will visit Prince George to sign the agreement, but Green said she's shooting for May or early June.
And while she said she has strongly encouraged Jiangmen's mayor Pang Guomei to be a part of that delegation, Green said it might not be the case as she is actually the mayor of multiple cities in a larger district.
"They usually have one trip a year out of the country. So hopefully it will be ours she chooses to take, but they're very limited in terms of their ability to travel abroad," Green said, adding it's more likely the delegation will be led by a vice mayor.
A breakdown of costs for the mayor and city manager to travel to China will be available in a Dec. 2 report to council.
