QUEBEC
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Economic Interests Trump Sister-City Ties
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CALGARY PUTTING FOCUS ON NEW OPPORTUNITIES KIM GUTTORMSON CALGARY HERALD
Calgary aldermen will still attend Quebec's winter carnival, and representatives from Quebec City will don cowboy hats for Stampede, despite Calgary shifting the focus of its sister city ties toward business relationships. While a report to the city's intergovernmental affairs committee Thursday said the sister city program "was effectively ended," both Mayor Dave Bronconnier and Calgary Economic Development's Bruce Graham said that was inaccurate. "Unfortunately, a poor choice of words by one of the authors of the report," Bronconnier said, adding he spoke to the mayor of Quebec City on Thursday morning. "We want to expand and keep working on our strategic cities around the globe, not to disband them. "Calgary's sister cities are very important relationships and a key link for Calgary back to other parts of the world." Calgary has six sister cities, a formal relationship that tends to focus more on social and cultural connections than business. Quebec City was the first. That relationship started in 1957. The others are Phoenix, Ariz.; Daqing, China; Jaipur, India; Daejeon, South Korea; and Naucalpan, Mexico. The city also has a bilateral relationship with Houston, Texas a relationship that economic development CEO Graham said is based more on the similarities as energy centres, and illustrates the direction they want to go. "We're opening up a global business centre here in February, we have more of a strategic, countrywide, industry-focused approach, more aligned with our economic development strategy and opportunities for companies that are already here in Calgary," Graham said. "We will still work with our sister cities as opportunities arise." The report said economic development is interested in moving from a city approach to one involving countries or regions, focusing on specific industries. At one time, there was the belief (sister cities) could be strong stimulators of economic activity, but in reality, in our experience, they've mostly been social and cultural," Graham said. "Business-to-business opportunities are typically a little tougher to find."
KGUTTORMSON@THEHERALD.CANWEST.COM
From the Calgary Herald Friday, December 4, 2009 Page B7 City & Region |
