Currently, Auckland has 12 sister city relationships. Recently, the relationship with THE German city, Hamburg, was renewed to stimulate and strengthen the civic and economic relationship between the two cities.
Auckland has no such understanding with local councils of any Indian cities.
“This is to some extent because there history of having such understanding in India. But, perhaps Ahmedabad would be an option seeing as there has been historical immigration to New Zealand from Gujarat and Punjab,” said Mayor Len Brown. He added that this would happen on the back of the Free Trade Agreement between the two countries.
“Councils can be catalysts for their local businesses and internationalisation through networks of partner cities. We know that to achieve the growth targets we have set in our Economic Development Strategy we need to really turn up the heat over the next decade – and strengthening our global connections is an important part of this."