International relationships

Partnership aims

We work with businesses, education providers, sports groups, and tourism operators to bring new trade and learning opportunities to the city.

International relationships help us to:

• Promote Lower Hutt as an attractive city for migration, investment, living and doing business
• Promote the city as a tourism destination
• Develop overseas contacts and networks and share best practice
• Provide businesses with access to new markets
• Raise the city's profile around the world

Our partner and sister cities

We can put you in touch with business contacts in:

• Minoh City, Japan
• Laredo, Texas, USA
• Tempe City, Arizona, USA
• Taizhou City, China
• Xi'an City, China
• Zhejiang Province, China
• Hwaseong, Korea

Read more about our sister cities and exchange opportunities

We also have a business relationship with the The Japan New Zealand Centre in Osaka, Japan, which brings groups to the Hutt each year.

Overseas business visits

We organise groups to travel to our sister cities to further existing relationships and develop new opportunities, and we have visits from overseas delegations. 

Bryan Mitchell, Director of Commercial Signals New Zealand Ltd, says his visit to Korea was very successful, and Commercial Signals is planning to do business with two of the four companies they visited. “The trade mission has proven to be very successful, not only with the contacts and relationships forged but we now have a much better understanding of the Korean business market and the way in which it operates.”

Charles Gilmore, Chief Executive of IndeServe, says “without the help of Hutt City Council, it would have been impossible for me to meet with the Korean companies I did … We are now in discussion with three companies about representing them in New Zealand and possibly taking their products into the Australian market through Wellington.”