The city of Montego Bay, St. James is on the cusp of establishing sister city relationship with the city of Zhuhai in the Peoples Republic of China. This will bring to three, the number of cities in China to be twinned with Montego Bay with Hangzhou and Yiwu being the others.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will officially establish the sister city relationship between Montego Bay and Zhuhai will be signed on Sunday February 07, 2021 during a virtual ceremony which starts at 8:30 pm (9:30 am China time Monday February 07, 2021).
His Worship, the Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Leeroy Williams, Chairman of the Civic and Community Affairs Committee at the St. James Municipal Corporation, Councillor Dwight Crawford, former Mayor of Montego Bay, now Minister of State in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Homer Davis and Deputy prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang as well as Chairman of the China-Montego Bay Sister City Committee, Yangsen Li will be participating in the signing ceremony from the Montego Bay end. A number of representatives of the Zhuhai Municipality will also be signing the MoU simultaneously in China.
Looking forward to the signing of the MoU, Montego Bays Mayor and Chairman of the St. James Municipal Corporation, Councillor Leeroy Williams said “this new sister city relationship is expected to bring significant technical and trading benefits to both Montego Bay and Zhuhai”.
“Significant benefits, exchanges and cooperation are expected to come to both cities in areas such as trade, tourism, economic, sports among others. The city of Montego Bay continue to share a wonderful relationship with China and in particular Hangzhou and Yiwu. As Mayor, I am looking forward to both cities reaping great benefits from this relationship as we push to build our capacities and make our respective locations stronger”, Mayor Williams said.
Mayor Williams is also paying tribute to Chairman of the China-Montego Bay Sister City Committee, Yangsen Li for the tireless work being done to maintain the relationships already in place and for the establishment of this new one.
He said “had it not been for the outbreak of COVID-19, a delegation for Zhuhai would be visiting Montego Bay in short order and a reciprocal visit would have been arranged by a delegation from Montego Bay to China to explore additional avenues of partnerships. I am very positive about this new relationship and I know that Mr. Li and his team will continue to seek out additional cities in China with which Montego Bay can be twinned.
Zhuhai, China is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, on the southeastern edge of Pearl River Delta. Its name literally means "pearl sea", which originates from the city's location at the mouth of the Pearl River meeting the South China Sea. Zhuhai borders Jiangmen to the west, Zhongshan to the north and Macau to the southeast, and shares maritime boundaries with Shenzhen and Hong Kong to the northeast across the estuary.
Zhuhai was one of the original four Special Economic Zones established in 1980, as well as one of China's premier tourist destinations, being called the Chinese Riviera. While the city is located in the traditionally Cantonese-speaking region of Guangdong, a significant portion of the population is now made up of Mandarin-speaking economic migrants originally from inland provinces.
The core of Zhuhai, in the northeastern portion of the administrative division, is part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, the biggest built-up area in the world with more than 44,478,513 inhabitants at the 2010 census, encompassing Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Macau, Hong Kong, the main part of Guangzhou, and small parts of Jiangmen and Huizhou cities.
In 2014 the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, recognized Zhuhai as the most livable city in China.