Karlovy Vary, West Bohemia, Aug 3 (CTK) – The spa town Karlovy Vary, one of the centres of West Bohemia, will sign a memorandum of cooperation with Wafangdian, Chinese city in the northeast Liaoning province, Karlovy Vary Deputy Mayor Cestmir Brustik told journalists yesterday.
In the beginning, the cooperation will mainly involve the spa sector and tourism, he said.
“The town hall has decided to sign a memorandum with the Chinese partner because there is a high demand for our spa services and for cooperation between the two towns. They can also cooperate in the areas of health care, tourism and culture,” Brustik said.
Wafangdian, a city of several million inhabitants, might send its senior residents to the Karlovy Vary spa.
Brustik said Karlovy Vary, with a population of 50,000, is one of the last regional centres in the Czech Republic which still does not cooperate with Chinese partners.
If direct regular flights between China and Karlovy Vary were introduced, Chinese clients could partly compensate for the declining number of the Czech spa’s Russian clients, Brustik said.
It is not certain if Wafangdian becomes Karlovy Vary’s official partner one day, as members of the Karlovy Vary Town Council are cautious in their approach to a possible friendship with a town from a communist country.
Nevertheless, Karlovy Vary launched similar formal cooperation with the Israeli town of Eilat several years ago, which later developed in their official partnership.
