CHENNAI: The Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur is all set to become the sixth sister city of Chennai, while Chennai will be Kuala Lumpur’s 16th.
The administrations of both the cities have decided to promote ties between them by signing an agreement that would designate them ‘sister cities’. The move is part of a worldwide initiative that aims at promoting exchanges between cities that are similar in some ways.
The agreement to this effect will be signed later this year, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Kuala Lumpur. The decision was made at a meeting between Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin and a Malaysian delegation, led by Kuala Lumpur Mayor Ahmad Faud bin Ismail. The delegation also officially invited the Deputy Chief Minister to be part of the ceremony when the agreement will be signed.
“This is my first visit to Chennai. After the first few hours, I felt completely at home because there are a lot of familiar looking faces. You see, KL has a huge population of Indians, especially Tamil speakers”, said bin Ismail. “My team and I were beginning to miss the restaurants we call nasi kandars in Malaysia. But, we were pleasantly surprised and satisfied after we visited one in Chennai”, he added.
The Malaysian delegation also visited the headquarters of the Chennai Corporation to meet Mayor M Subramanian and Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni. The Corporation honchos took the Malaysians on a tour of the historic Ripon Building and explained them the heritage of the Corporation.
The Chennai Mayor said the number of Tamil speakers living in Kuala Lumpur alone was enough to make the two cities natural choices to be sister cities. “We have enough in common with Kuala Lumpur. We hope the agreement will serve to further the ties between the cities with regard to culture, education, business, tourism and industrial cooperation”, said Subramanian.
Chennai already has such agreements with the Egyptian capital Cairo, Germany’s Frankfurt, Russia’s Volgograd and USA’s San Antonio and Denver.