Liuzhou, the so called Dragon City of China, is the third sister city of Muntinlupa after the two signed a letter of intent September 27, 2004 at the City Hall led by Liuzhou’s director of foreign affairs office Li Xu Xiang and former Mayor Jaime R. Fresnedi.

The formal twinning agreement was inked by the two major cities last November 3 to 7 when Fresnedi and his delegates went to Liuzhou, China to finalize the contents of the pact with the said foreign city’s officials.

Liuzhou is China’s hometown of dragons and has 3.5 million populations. Its main industry and source of living is the automotive business where the city earns millions of dollars from manufacturing and exporting tractor and other heavy equipments abroad.

Initially, both cities agreed to promote friendly contacts between their governments and carry out exchanges and cooperative ventures in such fields as culture, economy and trade, environment protection, education, tourism and agriculture with the aim of promoting the prosperity and development of the two.

Former Mayor Fresnedi said he expects to greatly reduce the problem of unemployment and the improvement of the lives of his constituents through the jobs that will be created by the investments the city of Liuzhou will provide to the City of Muntinlupa.

He said the cultural exchanges, technology transfer and trade interactions will boost the city’s local economy, which he said the area badly needs in this time of fiscal crisis in the country.

Liuzhou is Muntinlupa’s third sister city, the first one is Gunma-Machi in Japan followed by the City of Stanffanstorp in Sweden. City officials said the city enjoys various economic benefits from its exchanges with Gunma and Staffanstorp particularly in the areas of teacher-student exchange program, waste management and environmental preservation technology.