(Seychelles News Agency) - Cultural, tourism, and artistic exchanges are possible areas of cooperation between Seychelles and China’s Liaoning Province, the mayor of the island nation's capital city said after discussions to establish a sister city relationship kicked off.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Victoria and Shenyang city, the capital of the Liaoning Province, will enable the two cities to identify activities that can generate new initiatives to nurture the economic, social and cultural ties Seychelles and China share.

The Mayor of Victoria, David Andre, expressed these interests on Wednesday in discussions with a delegation from Liaoning Provincial People’s Congress in the Northeast region of China.

“As the world is getting smaller and smaller, it is very important for nations and people of the world to be closer together so that they can contribute in whatever way they can to make this planet a better place,” said Andre.

The Mayor of Victoria, David Andre, expressed these interests on Wednesday in discussions with a delegation from Liaoning Province. (Joena Meme) Photo License: CC-BY

He added that though Seychelles is a very small country compared to China, “you will appreciate what we can contribute together to make sure that a lot of good things happen between the two countries and people.”

Andre said that in the hope of learning from each other, he would like to see cooperation between the two cities in the field of sport, art, culture and tourism.

“In the context of tourism, I hope you will be able to discover what Seychelles has to offer so that we can have more visitors from your city, province, and country to come to visit our beautiful paradise,” he said.

The head of the Liaoning Province delegation, Zhang Tiemin, said the main purpose of visiting Seychelles is to enhance mutual understanding and communication.

“Liaoning and Seychelles should enhance more cooperation through exchanges, and the main communication between countries is through people. Seychelles attaches great importance to the protection of the environment and the people, which has left a key impression on all of the members,” said Tiemin.

He added that “cooperation between the two sides, industry development related to people's living, the other is energy cooperation, tourism, education and ecological development are the areas that we may conduct exchanges and cooperation.”

The foreign delegation expressed their interest in knowing some of the policies attracting foreign investment in Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean. The information will be relayed to entrepreneurs in the province.

Information gathered during the meeting will be relayed to the Shenyang Municipal Government and entrepreneurs to “see what we can do next.”