Wellington and San Francisco are innovative and socially progressive multicultural cities, with great love for their natural environment and built heritage. Both contain many significant institutions and exciting private, public and social enterprises.
Establishment of a Wellington San Francisco Sister City relationship has been emerging over the past ten years. Now it’s a reinvigorated and focussed initiative. Sister City relationships were originally developed for citizen diplomacy, cultural, or educational purposes. Today there is a growing need for added focus on economic development as well as wider exchange of expertise and information.
The initiative will focus initially on four key areas where we see the greatest potential for mutual benefit:
film and television,
arts, education and cultural exchange,
disaster resilience,
technology development.
Wellington and San Francisco are world leaders in these areas. We will strengthen existing partnerships and provide an impetus to develop new programmes.
Underpinning our Sister City relationship will be a strong recognition of the roles of our first peoples, our mana whenua.