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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO-006-10~~ w~~~ REPORT CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER Meeting: GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE Date: SEPTEMBER 13, 2010 Resolution#: ~~~-Y65/-/0 By-lavu#: NIA Report #: CAO-006-10 Subject: Sister City Program File#: RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended to the General Purpose and Administration Committee that Council approves the following: That Report CAO-006-10 be received for information and this matter be deferred to the new Council. Fzc~-~~~ Submitted Franklin Wu Chief Administrative Officer CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L1C 3A6 T (905)623-3379 F (905)623-0720 REPORT NO.: CAO-006-10 PAGE 2 1.0 BACKGROUND 1.1. At its meeting held in March 22, 2010, Council received a correspondence from the Honourable Bev. Oda, M.P. to Mayor Abernethy with respect to an individual seeking the Municipality's interest to participate in the "Sister City Program" with the objective of twinning with an unknown city in China for the purpose of promoting trade and cultural communication, as well as reach out and encourage new friendship and fellowship among Canadian and Chinese cities. 1.2 Said correspondence was referred to the CAO to investigate. 2.0 COMMENTS 2.1. The individual who made the initial contact with Bev. Oda's office is Mr. Charles Zhao who owns and operates a travel agent specializing in trip planning and travel arrangements for destinations between Chinese and Canadian cities. It appears that Mr. Zhao is working in partnership with Ms. Gillian Wang who operates Kingstone Consulting Inc. which is the driving force behind the "Sister Cities Program". Both individuals work out from an office in Markham where I visited and met with both of them. 2.2. They advised me that the correspondence that went to the Honourable Bev Oda was a general inquiry for potential cities that may be interested in twinning with a Chinese city and not specifically intend to seek Clarington's interest. Be it as it may, they would be very pleased to make the necessary connection and arrangement to seek out a Chinese city in the Zhejiany Province, (south of Shanghai) that shares some common interest with Clarington and may be interested to twin with Clarington. They indicated that they have in the past helped facilitate the twinning between Scarborough and Wuxi in the Jiangsu province in China. 2.3 The steps involved in the "twinning" exercise are as follows: a) Initial engagement-where Kingstone Consulting will seek and screen potential twinning cities partners b) Exchange information -Kingstone will provide potential cities information including community and demographic details, possibly a video exchange including translation service c) Evaluating -Kingstone Consulting will discuss with both potential twinning cities partners to identify match and explore possibility REPORT NO.: CAO-006-10 PAGE 3 d) Visiting - If a match is identifies, Kingstone Consulting will help to organize a group to visit the potential twinning cities, including scheduling the visit, arrange the travel, hosting the visiting delegate, arrange translation and conduct meeting/tours/receptions. e) Final decision -Based on the information collected, Kingstone Consulting will publish a document to detail the terms and both potential twinning partners interests. Decision will be made by the potential cities partners and signing of an official twinning document will complete the process. Implementation of the twinning document may require periodic visits by government and business leaders between the cities. 2.4. My discussion with both Mr. Zhao and Ms. Wang did not go into any significant details with respect to the cost of participating in the "Sister City Program", as it would be premature to do without having Council's authorization to move forward with this project. That said, it is reasonable to expect that the twinning cities will be responsible for all the hard costs such as travel, hosting, reception, etc. while the consulting company will take care of the soft costs such as consulting services, logistic arrangements, etc. This is the common practice in international trade mission and is the likely scenario for this twinning cities exercise. Should Council be interested in the next step, we can request a formal proposal from Kingstone Consulting. 2.5. Cities twinning between Canadian and Chinese cities have been done before and is generally considered an economic development activity in promoting international trade. Therefore, the need and/or benefits in participating in the twinning program will have to be determined by individual municipalities. It should be noted that several Canadian municipalities have made trade missions to Chinese cities despite not having any twinning cities agreements. 2.6 From a timing perspective, any visitation by potential twinning cities is not likely to take place until next year, as the next few months are required to lay the ground work. With the pending municipal election in the fall, it would be prudent for this matter to be deferred to the new council.