Owen Sound’s now-official sister city partnership with Dayi County, China, may produce a new economic driver for the Scenic City, says Mayor Ian Boddy.

The agreement was signed by the mayors of both communities during a ceremony April 15, as part of Boddy’s 12-day trip to China.

“The mayor (of Dayi County) made the comment and fairly aggressively that signing a piece of paper isn’t the end of it. This is just the start,” Boddy said in an interview Monday, just days after he returned home to Owen Sound.

“They’re very much interested in doing exchanges of teachers, of students and of culture to start.”

He said the officials he met with in Dayi County are eager to begin cultural exchanges with the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, for example.

They’re also interested, he said, in the educational opportunities available in Owen Sound, such as programs involving trades at local high schools and culinary programs at Georgian College.

“To go to the best schools over there, even high schools, it costs money and it isn't that much more money to come here for educational opportunities,” he said.

Boddy said he knows of at least two students from China who are currently taking classes in Owen Sound.

A student from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province where Dayi County is also located, is attending St. Mary’s High School, he said, while a student from Shanghai is taking piano lessons in Owen Sound.

“We’ve got students coming already. We’ve got an advantage compared to Toronto because in Toronto you can live entirely in the Chinese community and not get the English-speaking opportunities the same way,” he said.

“Up here, we don’t have as strong a Chinese community. We’ve got very much a good Chinese community that’s there to support students that come over, help them when they need help, but they’ve got a better chance in a small community like ours to learn English and learn the Canadian culture.”

Boddy has said the goal of the sister city agreement with Dayi County is to solidify Owen Sound as an ideal place for residents of the central Chinese community to invest, visit and attend school.

He has said the two communities have ties that date back more than a century, so it makes sense to build on that connection.

Beginning in 1908, Owen Sound missionaries to the Sichuan province established a school, hospital and close friendships with residents there, according to the city.

Owen Sound resident Don Willmott, who was born in China to Canadian missionary parents, requested several years ago that the city sign a twinning partnership with Dayi County.

Owen Sound is also the sister city of both Miamisburg, Ohio, and Ocho Rios, St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica.

Boddy said those two agreements are “very much social” partnerships.

“I expect that this one (with Dayi County) will eventually become much more of a cultural and economic relationship,” he said.

“China is an emerging or an emerged economic power yet it lacks business experience or entrepreneurship experience that we have over here. So they very much want to learn from us and from what I saw there’s things we can learn from them.”

Boddy is planning to invite representatives from all three of Owen Sound’s sister cities to attend the city’s 160th anniversary celebrations next year.

Boddy said a delegation from Dayi County, including the community’s deputy-mayor, are planning to visit Owen Sound this summer.

Members of the Sichuan Provincial People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries are also planning another trip here, Boddy said.