Staff Reporter Lahore
The California state parliament passed a resolution to make California, the United States and Punjab, Pakistan as ‘Sister Provinces’.
Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar is on a visit to the United States where members of the California parliament welcomed him with huge applause and respect. Members stood up to welcome Governor Ch Sarwar.
The Majority Leader of the House presented the resolution for Punjab and California be declared ‘Sister Provinces’ and importantly no member opposed it and it has been termed a big achievement for Pakistan.
The Punjab Governor also met with Congressman Rep Jim Costa from California and discussed ways of further cooperation between Punjab and California in the agriculture sector including technology transfer related to agriculture and exchange programmes between agricultural universities to increase GDP of both the provinces.
Later he also attended a community event at Fresno, California hosted by Dr Shoukat. It may be mentioned that California currently has 28 official Sister State relationships throughout the world, as per the website of California State Senate.
A sister state relationship is a formal declaration of friendship between two regions, states, or nations.
Such an agreement is a symbol of mutual goodwill thereby encouraging bilateral cooperation.
California’s Sister States are developed and implemented to encourage and facilitate mutually beneficial social, economic, educational, and cultural exchanges between a particular global region and the Golden State.
The agreements are drafted as legislative resolutions and are introduced by a member of the State Senate or Assembly and must be approved by the majority of elected representatives in each chamber.
It is pertinent to note that California had a Sister State agreement with Indian states Punjab and Gujrat back in 2001.
California has similar Sister State agreements with Egypt, Spain, Taiwan, Portugal, Italy, Indonesia and others.
