Sarasota Sister Cities Association

Citizen Diplomats - Carving a Path toward Peace Since 1963

Business Opportunities Through Sister Cities Relationships

Companies and businesses interested in pursuing economic and business opportunities overseas might want to consider capitalizing on existing relationships with locations that have established connections close to home. One such relationship is that of a Sister City, which is a broad-based, officially approved, long-term partnership between two communities or regions in two countries, for example, Sarasota has long term relationships with Hamilton, Province of Ontario, Canada; Dunfermline, Scotland; Perpignan, France; Tel Mond, Israel; Treviso, Italy, and Vladimir, Russia. Currently under exploration is a candidate Sister City of the Siming District of Xiamen, China.

Sister Cities International provides access to more than 2,500 such relationships in 126 nations across the globe. These relationships have created numerous contacts, cross-cultural experience, and abundant goodwill between communities in the United States and other nations.

In general, sister city partnerships strive to increase global cooperation, promote cultural understanding and trust, and stimulate economic development by involving local governments, businesses, and a wide variety of citizen volunteers including civil society and nonprofit organizations. They are recognized, registered, and coordinated by Sister Cities International (SCI), which is a national membership association for sister city, county, and state programs in the United States.

Anything that goes on in a community can become the subject of a sister city project, including health care, environment, arts, education, economic and business development, public safety, municipal training, youth, and much more. Some of these relationships already include a business-focused component that helps foster trade or contacts between companies, and for others, the potential exists. Of all the things Sister Cities can do, strengthening people-to-people relations between sister cities, specifying and achieving measurable objectives, as required in running a for-profit business, ranks way up there.

Interested Sarasota companies and businesses should consider such partnerships as a starting point to learn more about existing business relationships, established contacts, and the acquired experience. Primary contact is Carla Rayman, Sarasota Sister Cities Vice President for Economic Development, at Carla@carlarayman.com.

Sarasota Sister Cities and Sister Cities International can help identify existing relationships and establish contacts and can assist in identifying local business opportunities that could be developed through a sister city program.