FUNDING WILL ESTABLISH ASIAN TWINNING RELATIONSHIPS

The Province has identified 24 municipalities that meet the criteria for funding to help enhance twinning relationships between British Columbia and Asian communities:

Local Government	Funding Amount
Abbotsford	$50,000
Burnaby	$50,000
Campbell River	$25,000
Coquitlam	$50,000
Cranbrook	$50,000
Dawson Creek	$50,000
Fort St. John	$50,000
Kamloops	$50,000
Kelowna	$50,000
Maple Ridge	$50,000
Nanaimo	$50,000
New Westminster	$50,000
North Vancouver (Dist)	$50,000
North Vancouver City	$50,000
Port Moody	$50,000
Prince George	$50,000
Prince Rupert	$50,000
Quesnel	$25,000
Richmond	$50,000
Surrey	$50,000
Terrace	$25,000
Vancouver	$25,000
Victoria	$50,000
Williams Lake	$25,000

The grants are distributed to local governments that meet a series of criteria:

· A population of at least 40,000 and an existing Asia Pacific twinning relationship; or

· positioned to support B.C. as a pre-eminent trade and cultural hub between Asia and North America; and

· demonstrated recent initiatives to establish economically-robust twinning relationships with local governments; or

· have declared an interest in pursuing twinning relationships and have a clear need for assistance.

For more information on the benefits of twinning relationships and to download a copy of the BC Asia Twinning Toolkit, visit www.bcasiatwinnings.gov.bc.ca.

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Media contact:	Bridgitte Anderson Press Secretary Office of the Premier 604 307-7177	Marc Black Communications Manager Ministry of Community Services 250 387-4089

For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca.