Sister cities ‘date’ before pairing up

Being a sister city is like being in a marriage, and Pittsburgh has a lot of love to give. … Being a sister city is like being in a marriage, and Pittsburgh has a lot of love to give. Pittsburgh formalized a relationship with the Vietnamese city of Da Nang, its 16th sister city, at a signing ceremony last month in the City Council Chambers. ‘This is another kind of exchange program. It builds a long-term relationship. It’s like a marriage because these cities are joined forever,’ said Patrick Madden, president and CEO of Sister Cities International. Aside from the common goals of cultural, educational and economic exchange between any two sister cities, Pittsburgh officials have other expectations for the initiative with Da Nang. City Council president Doug Shields said he is hopeful that the formal relationship with Da Nang will reinvigorate old bonds with other sister cities, which were hard to maintain during Pittsburgh’s economic trials in 2003. ‘One of the issues here in the city of Pittsburgh is money. Part of the sister city relationship program is there is an exchange of business,’ said Shields. ‘We still don’t have the kind of funding to support it.’ Both Shields and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl attended the signing ceremony that solidified Pittsburgh’s relationship with the fourth most populous city in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. There will be a similar ceremony in Da Nang next month. Before the two cities become sister cities, Madden said that they should ‘date.’ Though this is usually done through economic investments, it was a charitable group in Pittsburgh called the Friends of Da Nang that took interest in building schools and facilities in Da Nang, a city that used to be an important U.S. military base (See related story about the Friends of Da Nang). Pittsburgh already has a small presence in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Bernt Reitan, executive vice president of the Pittsburgh-based company Alcoa Inc., signed an agreement in June with a Vietnamese mining company concerning a bauxite mine and alumina refinery in the Dak Nong province, which does not contain Da Nang, said Alcoa Inc. spokesman Kevin Lowery. Dr. Thach Hong Nguyen, the economic counselor at the embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam who attended the signing ceremony, could not be reached for comment. Many of Pittsburgh’s sister cities deal with the steel and mineral industries, and because of this kinship, representatives from Pittsburgh and its sister cities can have valuable talks about moving the cities forward, said Shields. The Slovakian steel city, Presov, is one of Pittsburgh’s sister cities. South of Presov is the largest flat-rolled steel producer in Central Europe, U.S. Steel Kosice. U.S. Steel operates out of Pittsburgh, even though Pittsburgh is no longer the great steel city it was during World War II. Pittsburgh, however, still holds the reputation as the ‘Steel City.’ That might be why it is a natural partner to its steel-producing sister cities: Bilbao, Spain; Ostrava, Czech Republic; Wuhan, China; and Sheffield, England. Shields said that the relationship with Sheffield holds particular value. ‘Sheffield is another steel town,’ said Shields. ‘We went through this. There were a lot of discussions about economic development, managing environmental conditions and government building.’ Phil Roberts, the director of strategy and corporate services at Creative Sheffield Limited, said that both Pittsburgh and Sheffield endured a restructuring of the steel industry in the last 30 years. After a series of new investments, both cities can now offer aerospace, medical technologies, creative and digital industries and environmental expertise. Sister cities started by Eisenhower Sister Cities International is an organization based in Washington, D.C., that began in 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized the need to promote cultural understanding among people around the world, without bureaucrats getting in the way, said Madden. Now there are about 2,300 sister cities in 135 countries. Madden said there’s no limit on the number of sisters a city can have. However, he encourages leaders to work within their means. Sometimes when a city does not have the resources to maintain its sister cities, relationships go dormant, like they did in Pittsburgh in 2003. There are other occasions when industries and priorities change or there are political disagreements that cause participants to cut ‘forever’ short. ‘Just like a marriage, they can go down,’ said Madden. ‘We do have a mechanism for divorce, but we don’t want to promote that.’ Sister Cities International is the only organization that certifies sister cities. For two cities to become sister cities with each other, leaders from both cities must sign an agreement. However, the cities determine the level of involvement. Cities might just host musical groups, provide scholarships for students to travel abroad or send consultants to help analyze problems with water systems. Cities pay annual dues based on their population, not the number of initiatives. The dues range from $150 to $1,960, and Pittsburgh, with an estimated population of about 311,218, pays $1,190 annually in dues, said Laura Giroux, the membership manager of Sister Cities International. Chicago has thriving programs with 27 sister cities. The smallest population to have a sister city is the town of Gilbert, Ark., with a population of 32. Its sister city is in the United Kingdom, said Madden. Pittsburgh’s other sister cities are Sofia, Bulgaria; Zagreb, Croatia; Matanzas, Cuba; Saarbrucken, Germany; Saitama, Japan; Skopje, Macedonia; San Isidro, Nicaragua; Fernando de la Mora, Paraguay; Donetsk, Ukraine; and Karmiel-Misgav, Israel. Shields said that Pittsburgh does not have a sister city in Africa and has expressed interest in an alliance with Kampala, the capital of Uganda. He said he applauds the missionary work that has been done in Kampala and the humanitarian work of the Friends of Da Nang. ‘Rather than be a deficit in the world equation,’ said Shields, ‘it’d be good to be a contributor and give support to people who are doing the right thing there.’