Rosso signs deal to renew relations with Cairns

By LARRY ANDREW
SISTER-city relations between Cairns and Lae has been rekindled with the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Lae MP John Rosso and Cairns ambassador Sim Hayward.
The meeting was made possible through the Australian consulate office in Lae by consulate-general Paul Murphy.
The delegation from Cairns spent a couple of days in Lae last week.
Hayward said they had an interesting dialogue and exchanged ideas on how the two cities would go in future.
“We invited our seven-sister cities to come together, we do photography exchanges, pottery, textiles and other things. The way Cairns takes the initiatives in keeping our seven-sister cities alive in recent years is trying to initiate exchanges,” Hayward said.
“We try to keep this relationship active, especially those getting a little bit down like Lae.”
Hayward  said for the last four to five years there were not many activities taking place between Lae and Cairns.
With discussions taking place the ambassador is adamant that Lae will form a sister city committee made up of interested parties from the business sector supported by the government.
Cairns’ seven-sister cities are Scottsdale (US), Sidney (Canada), Oyama, Minami (Japan), Zhanjian (China), Riga (Latvia) and Lae (PNG).
Lae MP Rosso acknowledged the Cairns sister city concept had been around for the last 33 years.