Our first sister city partnership was formed with Osaka in 1978, and has since expanded to include four more cities. Our multicultural communities and the city as a whole have been nourished by their influence.
Sister cities
Since 1980, Melbourne has enjoyed a very positive sister city relationship with Tianjin. This has generated many positive economic, educational and cultural activities and outcomes for both cities, facilitated by our dedicated office in Tianjin.
Initially much of our association with Tianjin was cultural, educational and sporting. However, since 1987 we have taken a more business-focused approach and developed strategies to enhance the people-to-people networks we had established for the benefit of both parties.
Tianjin Government Leaders Training Program
One of the major initiatives to come out of the sister city relationship has been the Tianjin Government Leaders Program, which began in 2001 and is run in association with RMIT. Under this program up to 20 senior business and government leaders are sent to Melbourne by Tianjin municipal government, to take part in a 12-week business management course at RMIT University.
Melbourne Office Tianjin
The Melbourne office Tianjin facilitates trade and investment between Melbourne companies and organisations and their counterparts in select regions of China.
The office articulates Melbourne's capabilities in:
- liveability, sustainable development and smart city services
- education and training
- innovation, creative industries, start-ups and entrepreneurship.
The Melbourne office Tianjin works in partnership with Victorian and Australian governments, business organisations and international partners to advance international business activities that increase exports from and inwards investment in Melbourne.
The office also engages with select cities to learn, adapt and share global best practice.
The office was set up in 1998 and developed from the sister city relationship established in 1980 between Melbourne and Tianjin.
Contact us
Address: Melbourne Office Tianjin
Room 1008, Tianjin International Building
75 Nanjiang Road
Tianjin 300050
People’s Republic of China
Phone: +86 22 23136003
Fax number: +86 22 2313 6005
Email: motj@melbourne.vic.gov.au
Our partnership with Osaka began in 1978, to establish 'a people-to-people relationship with the aim of developing mutual friendships and a lasting and understanding relationship'.
In recent years Melbourne has developed strong business ties with Osaka, particularly in the Life Sciences and Health sectors. We continue to facilitate two way trade between the cities.
The City of Melbourne has strong ties with Osaka trade agencies such as International Business Promotion Centre and Osaka Business and Investment Center. These agencies can assist potential Melbourne exporters with:
- in-market information
- business matching with potential Japanese partners
- practical introductions for corporate registration, office location and recruitment.
For more information visit:
Melbourne's sister city relationship with Thessaloniki recognises Melbourne's large and dynamic Greek community and helps to reinforce the many similarities between these two great port cities.
Melbourne is home to the largest Greek-speaking population outside of Europe, and has strong connections to Greece. Melbourne and Thessaloniki have enjoyed a sister city for more than 30 years, formalising ties in 1984.
For more information visit:
Melbourne and Boston are both knowledge cities and are connected by a common commitment to excellence in healthcare and biotechnology, startups and innovation, liveability and education.
2020 marked the 35th anniversary of the Melbourne-Boston sister city relationship.
Melbourne Boston Sister Cities Association (MBSCA), an independent incorporated community association, was founded in 1985. The MBSCA plays a key role in promoting educational exchanges between Melbourne and Boston. These are awarded annually in the fields of medical research, the arts and education and aim to enhance Melbourne and Boston’s reputations as centres of knowledge excellence and to strengthen the ties between our two cities.
Sharing passions for food, fashion, sport and culture, Melbourne and Milan are natural economic and cultural partners.
The City of Melbourne continues to support Melbourne MovementOpens in new tab in its endeavours to participate in the annual Salone Internazionale del Mobile (Milan Furniture Fair), the world's premier furniture, lighting and home accessory exhibition. Established in 1999 by Professor Kjell Grant of RMIT University, Melbourne Movement is a not-for-profit collective whose aim is to foster the design excellence of young Victorian-based designers, both locally and internationally.
Other international alliances
Melbourne's engagement with India commenced when a strategic alliance with the National Capital Territory Government of New Delhi was formally acknowledged in 2008, the first of its kind between an Australian capital city and an Indian city. The alliance serves as a gateway for the City of Melbourne into India, expanding relationships with industry associations and business.
In 2011, we strengthened our ties with India through an International Engagement Framework: India Statement. The statement outlines strategic guidelines for our engagement with India, to strengthen our long-standing trade and cultural relationship.
Our current approach for India is to take a sector focus, matching Melbourne's industry capabilities to India's requirements and create opportunities to facilitate exposure of Melbourne businesses to key players and decision makers in India.
In the short term, we’re pursuing opportunities in sustainable urban design and clean technologies, aligned with the Indian government's bold '100 Smart Cities' strategy. As part of our '100 Smart Cities' initiative, we’ve hosted three inbound delegations (2015, 2016, 2018) and led an outbound business mission to India (2017) focused on the themes of liveability and smart cities, water and waste management and urban design).
We recognise the strategic importance of Indonesia as the largest economy in Southeast Asia and one of our nearest neighbours, and are looking to grow our Indonesian engagement.
We’ve identified Bandung as a city that shares strong alignment with Melbourne in a number of key sectors, including smart cities, liveability, creative economy, startups and innovation. Our current approach is to identify potential opportunities for collaboration in these areas of mutual interest, to highlight Melbourne’s industry capabilities and promote Melbourne businesses.
The Business Partner Cities (BPC) network helps promote business interaction within the Asia–Pacific region, contributing to economic development of each member city.
Its aim is to create opportunities for small to medium sized enterprises to establish links with their counterparts throughout the network.
Activities that occur under the banner of BPC include:
- exchange between peak business and investment organisations of member cities
- business missions to member cities, targeting small and medium-sized companies
- promotion of international business between companies located in BPC member cities
- information exchange on economic development matters affecting business in each of the BPC member cities.
Melbourne’s participation
Melbourne’s participation in the network is currently administered by the City of Melbourne and the Australian Industry Group. This role includes:
- providing information and business-matching services to visiting delegations from BPC cities
- promoting Melbourne’s membership of BPC through their network of member firms
- promoting the BPC network to the wider business community in Melbourne, Victoria and Australia
- providing and maintaining accurate information and database records.
Memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and agreements
For further details about any of these agreements, please contact our Economic Development and International Branch via email: global@melbourne.vic.gov.au.
Osaka
| Title | Description | Year |
| Proclamation of the sister city relationship between Melbourne and Osaka | Contribute to international trade and mutual friendship through people-to-people relationships | 1978 |
| Business Partner City Agreement between City of Melbourne, Australian Industry Group, City of Osaka and Osaka Business Partner City Council | Economic development within the Asia Pacific region | 1999 |
| MOU between the City of Melbourne and City of Osaka on Main Streets Collaboration and Exchange | Exchange of technical information and knowledge and the creation of safe and lively streets | 2018 |
Tianjin
| Title | Description | Year |
| Establishment of the Melbourne-Tianjin sister city relationship | Mutual exchange and cooperation in fields of culture, education, economy, trade, science, technology, city administration and construction. | 1980 |
| MOU of strengthening exchanges and cooperation through overseas Chinese between Tianjin and Melbourne in humanities, trade and other fields | Promotion of exchanges between schools and overseas Chinese teenagers including in cultural activities. | 2016 |
| MOU between City of Melbourne and Tianjin Municipal Tourism Administration | Strengthening of tourism collaboration. | 2018 |
Nanjing
| Title | Description | Year |
| MOU between Nanjing and Melbourne of Australia on the establishment of cooperative relationship | Exchanges and cooperation in business and education. | Undated |
| MOU on collaboration entered into between City of Melbourne and Nanjing | Cooperation in the socio-economic development of both cities in the fields of education and research, biological medicine, liveability, smart cities, creative and innovation industry, sci-tech innovation and entrepreneurship, sports, economy and trade. | 2019 |
| MOU of establishing strategic partnership of cooperation for trade and investment between Nanjing Bureau of Commerce and City of Melbourne | Cooperation for further business exchanges and investment in life science, bio-medicine, business services, and other sectors and to encourage expansion of bilateral trade. | 2019 |
| MOU on innovation and startups cooperation between Nanjing Pukou Hi-Tech Zone, City of Melbourne, Victorian Government Trade and Investment Office, Nanjing, and ACASE | To foster and promote co-operation in innovation, including on the Nexus Startup Summit. | 2019 |
Chengdu
| Title | Description | Year |
| MOU establishment of economic partnership between Chengdu and City of Melbourne | Support the exchange of information on major events in each city, leverage the direct flights between Melbourne and Chengdu to promote mutual prosperity and to encourage official exchanges. | 2017-2020 |
Suzhou
| Title | Description | Year |
| MOU on strengthening cooperation between Suzhou and CoM | Collaboration to promote startups and startup ecosystem development and encouragement of official and civic exchanges in liveability, culture, education and trade. | 2019 |
| MOU on the 2020-2022 Three-Year Cultural and Creative Industries Cooperation Plan between City of Melbourne and City of Suzhou | Suzhou and Melbourne agree to capitalise on the opportunity presented by Suzhou Design Week to promote the implementation of creative and cultural cooperation projects between the two cities and to promote friendly exchanges and cooperation between the two governments, businesses and peoples. | 2020-2022 |
Guangzhou
| Title | Description | Year |
| MOU on greater cooperation and exchanges to strengthen business development connections between City of Melbourne and Guangzhou | Cooperation in biotechnology, health and medical sciences; environmental management services and encouragement of business and trade. | 2003 |
Bandung
| Title | Description | Year |
| Letter of intent between city government of Bandung, West Java province of the Republic of Indonesia and City of Melbourne concerning city to city cooperation | Cooperation and sharing of knowledge in the fields of smart cities, economy and trade, capacity building, city liveability, startups and innovation. | 2019 |
Thessaloniki
| Title | Description | Year |
| Formal signing of Melbourne-Thessaloniki sister city relationship | Mutual exchange and cooperation in commerce, industry, education and culture. | 1984 |
Boston
| Title | Description | Year |
| Formal signing of Melbourne-Boston sister city relationship | Mutual exchange and cooperation in commerce, education, information, medicine, arts, culture, science, technology, tourism and trade. | 1985 |
Milan
| Title | Description | Year |
| Sister city agreement between the City of Melbourne, Commonwealth of Australia and the City of Milan, Republic of Italy | Recognises the significant contribution made by the Italian community to the life of Melbourne and promotes mutual exchange and operation in arts and culture, business, city management, design, education, science and technology and tourism. | 2004 |
Contact us
Email global@melbourne.vic.gov.au with your questions.
