Iloilo City Local Economic Investment and Promotion Office head Ritchel Gavan delivers a speech on behalf of the delegates during an intensive training on Tropical Agriculture Advanced Study and Research Program Tropical Agriculture Advanced Study and Research Program held in Hainan, China on November 26 to December 7, 2018. (Photo courtesy of Ritchel Gavan)
ILOILO CITY -- The Hainan Foreign Affairs of China is eyeing to establish a sisterhood agreement with Iloilo City, according to the head of the city’s Local Economic Investment and Promotion Office (LEIPO).
In an interview Tuesday, following her two-week intensive training on the Tropical Agriculture Advanced Study and Research Program, Ritchel Gavan said that Iloilo City was the only Philippine local government unit invited to the program because of that consideration.
The training gathered 20 participants from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Micronesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
“There are other areas for economic cooperation,” she said.
She added that Hainan is being positioned as a special economic zone in China. They are also working on making it as a free port zone. “There is a demand to learn English because they are opening up,” she said.
These are some reasons why they wanted to establish the agreement with the city, she added.
In education, Iloilo City is a “Center of Excellence”. This would mean employment for local teachers and business for schools because Hainan would be sending their students to learn English in Iloilo, Gavan said.
Also, it could boost tourism arrival in this highly-urbanized city because Hainan has the largest overseas Chinese.
“They would want to see other areas of cooperation apart from agribusiness,” she said, who was also asked to deliver a speech at the closing ceremony of the training.
She added that they will be waiting for the Hainan Foreign Affairs of China to send a letter stating their intention for a sisterhood agreement. (PNA)
