DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 March)— Officials from the Guro District in Seoul, South Korea have expressed an interest to forge a friendship pact with the city government, an official of the Davao City Investment Promotion Center (DCIPC) said.
Catherine Tzaris Pagatpatan, head of DCIPC investment and trade promotion unit, said in an interview Tuesday the Korean group was composed of Choi Dong-Uk, director general of the Planning and Economy Bureau, and Lee Kyu-Ok and Anne Park, manager and staff of the International Cooperation Team, respectively.
DCIPC chief Jason Magnaye said in a separate interview the group “might also explore to sign a sisterhood agreement with the city,” noting, however, that the officials only represent a district of Seoul.
Pagatpatan said the Guro District officials earlier expressed intention to only sign a friendship instead of a sisterhood pact, as the latter is “much formal with a signing of a memorandum of agreement.”
In a friendship agreement, they would just explore the investment potentials in the city, she added.
Magnaye said that so far, only three Korean cities have forged friendship pacts with the city government—Gwangyang, Incheon and Uijeongbu.
For sisterhood pacts, the city has forged agreements with 16 foreign cities that include Brunei, Darussalam; Darwin, Australia; Honolulu, Hawaii; Kagoshima and Naja Okinawa, Japan; Keelung and Taichung, Taiwan; Koror, Palau; Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia; Manado and Bitung, Indonesia; Mersin, Turkey; Nanning, China; Ngiwal, Palau; Tacoma, USA; and Vladivistok, Russia.
Inside the country, Davao has sisterhood agreements with 17 cities that include, among others, Bacolod, Baguio, Bayugan, Bulacan, and Dapitan in Zamboanga del Norte.
Magnaye said sisterhood pacts seek to foster “conscious efforts to promote trade and commerce, tourism, and cultural exchanges such as educational and sports.”
(Lorie Ann A. Cascaro/MindaNews)