CEBU CITY Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Mayor Lou Qiang of Chengdu, China, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for sisterhood relationship on Wednesday.
In a news conference, Osmeña said no specific project has been discussed yet, but he is hopeful Chengdu would be able to assist the city.
“It was suggested to me and, then of course, we have a very big presence of the Chinese community here. But there’s no initial discussion about a possible project yet,” Osmeña added.
Osmeña admitted he was not knowledgeable enough about Chengdu and its ability to assist the city.
The MOU stipulated that both parties should enhance the mutual understanding and friendship between the Philippines and China, and seeks to establish friendly cooperative relations based on the principles of equality and mutual benefit, and would cooperate to develop education, culture, antiterrorism and agriculture.
With this, the city governments of Cebu and Chengdu should establish information-sharing mechanisms of activities related to culture, agriculture and tourism, among others, and would exchange activities.
Aside from this, they are expected to intensify the education cooperation through exchanging lessons at school, and both parties should help in promoting tourism.
During the signing, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office head Nagiel Bañacia and Vice Director General of Chengdu in Municipal Foreign and Overseas Affairs Office, Lyu Tianyi, served as witnesses.
On May 8 and 9, Osmeña went to Chengdu, China after he was invited by a Chengdu delegation to discuss the matter of the two cities’ sisterhood.
Chengdu is a city with a long history of more than 2,300 years and was among the 24 historical and cultural cities published by the State Council.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, Chengdu was declared as a famous commercial city in China, adding the place is the birthplace of Chinese banknotes.
The Cebu City government has been entering into sister- city ties with counterparts in the world.
Cebu City has a longer relation to Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands. They recently commemorated their 25th sisterhood anniversary.