City delegation builds relationships during China visit

City of Karratha officials said Ni hao ma to Chinese students in their classrooms last week as the local government hopes to prepare the way for Pilbara-China business deals by first building cultural relationships.

The Karratha delegation visited the children in the north eastern city of Qingdao, before visiting sister city partner, the Lanshan District of Rizhao and earlier attending the EASTxWEST local government forum in Shenzhen.

C deputy president John Lally said the delegation had planned to join classes at three Qingdao schools and tour a university that has 25,000 students studying the oil and gas industry.

With the Qingdao students learning English and Karratha's St Paul's Primary School studying Mandarin, Mr Lally said the two cities could hold exchange programs.

“Despite what people say, at the moment we've got no projects shovel ready in Karratha for Chinese (investment).”

“So it is not just a matter of whistling (Chinese investors into the Pilbara).”

“The strategy is, before we build business and tourism relationships, we build education relationships,” he said.

With Qingdao home to the famous Tsingtao pilsner, Mr Lally aimed to further strengthen cultural relationships later this year by returning on a personal holiday for the city's beer festival.