LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government will be forging friendship ties with Miri City in Sarawak, Malaysia to strengthen its relationship with different cities in the Southeast Asian region.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda and Councilor Guillier Galwan visited the Malaysian city last week to submit to their counterparts the town’s intention to forge friendship ties with the Malaysian city.
“Our visit to Miri City in Sarawak was successful because we were able to meet with our counterparts and initially concretize the said friendship ties for us to expand our international relations,” Mayor Salda stressed.
The municipal chief executive claimed the municipal government will invite the city officials of Miri during the celebration of the town’s Strawberry festival next year for them to formalize the friendship ties and for them to witness the festivities. Miri is a coastal city in northeastern Sarawak, Malaysia, located near the border of Brunei, on the island of Borneo. The city covers an area of 997.43 square kilometres 385.11 square miles, located 798 kilometres 496 miles northeast of Kuching and 329 kilometres 204 miles southwest of Kota Kinabalu. Miri is the second largest city in Sarawak, with a population of 358,020 as of 2016. The city is also the capital of Miri District of the Miri Division.
Salda expressed optimism the friendship ties will translate to more Malaysian visitors to the municipality aside from enhancing their educational and cultural exchanges that will boost the promotion of the capital town as the source of quality vegetable and strawberry products.
According to him, the municipal government will aggressively enter into sisterhood ties with similar cities and municipalities in the different parts of Southeast Asia to entice more foreign visitors to visit the municipality and appreciate its agri-tourism destinations, among other aspects of socio-economic development.
He disclosed the primary export product of Miri is palm oil and the municipal government wants to tap the potential tourists from the city to help spur the town’s economic growth as one of the municipality’s priority programs is ecotourism.
Previously, the municipal government entered into sisterhood relations with various cities and developed municipalities in Guam, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan, among other sisterhood agreements with different cities and municipalities in the country over the past several years.
He revealed the city officials of Miri were receptive on the intention of the municipal government to have friendship ties with them as the municipality is one of the well-known ecotourism destinations in the country aside from other similarly situated municipalities in the region.
La Trinidad is the capital town of Benguet Province that has a land area of over 8,000 hectares with a population of over 100,000 as of the latest census of population.
By HENT
