Yantai City Mayor Sun Yongchun recently wrote Mayor Tomas Osmeña about his interest to accept a sister-city relationship with Cebu City due to the latter's renown in tourism, shipping and exhibition industries, among others.
"With the contacts from International Liaison Department, Central Committee of Youth League of China, I feel delighted to acknowledge that the city of Cebu is interested in developing sister-city relations with the city of Yantai," Yongchun said in his 2-page letter.
Yongchun told Osmeña that he believed that the sister-city pact between the two cities would deepen understanding, enhance friendship, and promote cooperation that would be mutually beneficial and prosperous.
The city council had already referred Yongchun's letter to the committee on local and international sister-city relationships, headed by councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa, for a study of the offer.
Yantai, with a population of over 6 million in an area of almost 14,000 square kilometers, is one of the first 14 coastal cities opened up to the outside world in China.
The city played an important role in the Pan-Bohai Sea Economic Circle, and after the reforms and opening-up policy were adopted, Yantai's economic and social situation soared to progress.
Now it boasts of a booming state-level Economic and Technological Industrial Park and 10-provincial level Economic Zones.
The city of Yantai has been active in foreign exchanges and cooperation over years and has so far established sister-city relationship with 13 cities from 10 countries around the world. Cebu City, for its part, has established its first sister-city relationship with Salinas City of California, USA in 1964. - Garry B. Lao