​Sister City programme to resume

Invercargill City Council has agreed to upcoming visits to its two Sister Cities in 2027 and 2028, following a year-long break in funding for the programme.

In 2025, Council had agreed to pause its funding for the Sister City programme for one year, after having reinstated it in the Long-term Plan 2024-2034 following a pandemic-driven pause.

At yesterday’s Council meeting, three options were considered by elected members: including deferring visits to both Suqian and Kumagaya, to plan visits to both, or to prioritise a visit to one Sister City and delay the other.

Councillors voted in favour of scheduling visits to both cities – Kumagaya in July 2027, and Suqian in April 2028 – with four elected members (Crs Pottinger, Lush, Arnold, and Bond) voting against the motion.

Mayor Tom Campbell said it was important for Council to continue to recognise the social, cultural, and economic benefits its Sister City relationships offered the city.

“Meaningful relationships take time, and work, and we need to demonstrate to our Sister Cities that we value the bonds we have forged with them,” he said.

The Sister City relationship with Kumagaya had offered many benefits to generations of Invercargill residents, through school and business exchange programmes, and Suqian’s population of 4.9 million could play a vital role in further strengthening Invercargill’s economy, he said.

“China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, and the friendship we have established with the city of Suqian offers huge potential for our community, but it needs to be nurtured. Sister City visits are a privilege that we don’t take lightly, and they are essential in ensuring our communities can reap the rewards of global partnership.”

It would be helpful for Council, and the wider community, for specific focuses for each visit to be determined in advance to ensure the visits made by any Invercargill-based delegation were as productive as possible, he said.

The estimated costs at the time of the report for a five-person delegation to visit the two cities were approximately $16,000 and $8,000, respectively. The number of Council representatives included in the delegations would be finalised closer to the planned travel dates.

However, at the meeting Mayor Campbell noted the delegation to Suqian likely needed to be slightly larger. He also noted Council needed to consider how Sister City delegations were funded.

Council Manager Legal and Governance Michael Morris said Invercargill and Kumagaya officially became Sister Cities in 1993, with a delegation from the city last visiting Japan in 2023 to mark the 30th anniversary of the relationship. A delegation from Kumagaya had also visited Invercargill in the same year.

Meanwhile, the Sister City agreement with Suqian began in 2013. A delegation from Invercargill was invited to visit in 2023 to mark a decade of the relationship, however at the time Council resolved not to travel to China due to the high cost of travel in the aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic, he said.

Council had allocated an annual budget of $50,000 for the Sister City programme, which covered a number of items including outbound travel and hosting any delegations that visited Invercargill, he said.