Documents were inked, gifts were swapped and photos were snapped for posterity at a signing ceremony Wednesday between the city of Coquitlam and a region of China.
Six delegates from Chancheng District visited Coquitlam to pen a "friendly co-operation" memorandum, a document that builds on School District 43's agreement from last fall to improve educational relations and, now, adds business and cultural ties. Before the event at city hall, the delegation also made a stop at nearby Pinetree secondary school to meet with administrators and students.
Chancheng is the political centre of Foshan City and is home to about a million people; about 5.4 million people live in Foshan, the third largest city in the southeastern Guangdong province, near Hong Kong.
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart, who signed his name to the protocol memo with Jiatai He, vice-secretary of Chancheng's social work department, drew applause for talking in Chinese for part of his welcome.
Speaking in front of Canadian, Chinese and Coquitlam flags in the council chambers, Stewart commented on Coquitlam's multicultural population, a quarter of which is Chinese descent. "This diversity of population gives us an advantage as we explore the Pacific Rim," he said.
Last October, Stewart, city manager Peter Steblin and other business representatives toured South Korea, where Coquitlam has a sister city with Paju, and China to drum up business and lure foreign students to SD43, which has one of the largest international education programs in Canada, with families paying $12,000 a year for tuition.
During the signing ceremony - seen as a formal advancement for the Chinese to do business - Jiatai He talked through a translator about Chancheng's opportunities for training and economic development in Coquitlam.
