From Sister to Global Cities: The economics of New Zealand’s Sister Cities

Abstract

NZIER has been commissioned by Sister Cities New Zealand to investigate Sister City relationships. In 2003, we wrote a report about the economic benefits of Sister Cities and their potential for supporting regional economic development. The report featured interviews with a number of businesses and councils, and its key recommendations are contained in Appendix A to this report. Now, 16 years after our first report, NZIER has been recommissioned to: • follow up with the original interviewees and find out how their businesses have changed • explore what have been the learnings from successful attempts by some Sister Cities to commercialise their relationships. To develop an analytical framework, we also wanted to: • wrap an economic framework around Sister City relationships that explains their function and their drivers of success • within that economic framework, consider why some cities relationships have been more successful than others • support some initial policy thinking using the economic framework and the knowledge of what works for commercialising Sister Cities and what areas or bottlenecks need to be addressed for Sister City relationships to become regional engines of economic growth.