China town

PUT it there . . . council leader Howard Sykes and Huang Xianhui, vice director of Xishan District People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

Oldham cements economic ties with Far East link-up

INCREASED co-operation in education and economic development has been agreed between Oldham Council and a district of China.

Delegates from Xishan — which belongs to the administrative region of Wuxi in Jiangsu Province — visited the borough this week to meet officials from the local authority, business and schools.

The new tie-up aims to build on existing arrangements between Oldham and Xishan, committing them to:

:: Dialogue between economic development specialists to explore collaboration.

::Identifying key economic sectors, helping the creation of companies and exploring opportunities for inward investment.

::Promoting alliances between universities and higher education institutions.

::Introducing opportunities to widen the gateway for collaboration in Wixu and Greater Manchester. The two districts will also look to deepen educational links by encouraging cultural and linguistic learning and exploring school visits for young people. Council leader Howard Sykes said: “Successful global trade and investment is vital to both our economies and this is an important long-term project.

“The aim of this week’s visit was to build on existing agreements between Oldham and Xishan in education and trade.

“Our visitors were able to observe the progress of the collaboration between the Radclyffe and Tianyi schools, and to identify sectors and companies from both countries that could benefit from further collaboration.

“Our guests also met local business leaders and were able to learn more about our borough in a regional context.”

This latest agreement builds on a relationship with Xishan that began back in the 1990s.

In 2008, an Education Agreement was signed and in 2009, representatives from the Radclyffe School in Chadderton attended the Jiangsu International Education Forum.

It has since signed a sister school agreement with Tianyi High School in Xishan, has hosted several visits by Chinese teachers in the past year and has worked on a joint astro-physics project with Tianyi.