On the evening of September 2nd, a banquet was held in Haikou to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the sisterhood relationship between the cities of Darwin and Haikou. Lord Mayor Graeme Sawyer of Darwin and his delegation attended the celebration. Ms. Han Mei, Vice Mayor of Haikou was also present and delivered a keynote speech.
Vice Mayor Han Mei reviewed the 20-year sisterhood between Haikou and Darwin in her speech. She said that over the last 20 years, thanks to the care and support of both city governments and people from all walks of life, the people of the two cities had witnessed deepening understanding and friendship.
Exchanges and communication inform the aspects of culture and education have become more frequent and productive, for example involvement in the Arafura Games and the Teenager Basketball Games, the student exchange program, the promotion of Confucius Classes and so on. Meanwhile, the two cities have carried out various communications in many areas, such as business and trade, tourism, environmental protection, health and medicine.
"I believe that the friendship between Haikou and Darwin will be fruitful and rewarding with the concerted efforts made by both governments and our people." She said.
Lord Mayor Grame Sawyer extended his wish to further promote communication and cooperation in different areas between Darwin and Haikou. "We are both capital cities with relatively small populations, we have similar tropical climates and natural surroundings, tourism is an important industry for us and both our cities have a very diverse and rich multicultural community," he said, "but most importantly we both have citizens that believe in the Sister Cities movement and endeavor to achieve increased cultural understanding and world peace through person-to-person contact."
After the speeches, Ms. Han Mei and Mr. Graeme Sawyer exchanged gifts to mark the 20-year sisterhood. A golden key from Haikou was to unveil a new chapter for the two cities.
Darwin became the first international sister city of Haikou 20 years ago when Haikou and Darwin built a friendly cross-equator bridge thanks to an introduction by Ms. Anna Li, president of the Australian-Sino Friendship Society of the Northern Territory.
