Sister Cities recognition for Whanganui District Council

Published on 03 April 2019

Whanganui District Council has been honoured with the award for Best Local Government Project at the Sister Cities New Zealand annual conference held in Palmerston North on 21-23 March 2019.

The Council won the award for its recent 30-year anniversary celebrations with Whanganui’s Japanese sister city, Nagaizumi-cho.

Attendees at the conference included representatives from local and central Government, along with international sister-city delegates from Japan and the United States and ambassadors from several countries.

As well as accepting the award, Mayor Hamish McDouall presented at the conference on the Council’s International Relations Strategic Review and its implementation. The review is the Council’s way of assessing future international relations to ensure a mutually beneficial interchange of social, cultural and economic outcomes.

“I am pleased that our 30-year relationship with Nagaizumi-cho has been recognised by Local Government New Zealand and I am sure the many students, educators and visitors from both cities who have enjoyed their interactions over many years would agree that the long-term friendship deserves to be recognised in this way,” Mayor McDouall says.

Other conference topics included the contribution of global partnerships to New Zealand’s economic development, methods of measuring benefits from international sister-city relations and opportunities that exist for the exchange of indigenous knowledge and culture.

As part of the award the Council also received $1500 worth of air travel from Air New Zealand.