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Gainesville mayor Harvey Ward and São José de Rio Preto mayor Fábio Cândido signed a sister cities contract on Oct. 1, marking the beginning of an economic and cultural exchange between the towns.
This is Gainesville’s thirteenth sister city contract and the first for Rio Preto, located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo.
The partnership was finalized after a weeklong exchange where delegates from Rio Preto visited Gainesville to learn about its economy, culture and infrastructure.
The Sister City Program of Gainesville, Inc., is an organization that fosters relationships with cities from different countries, opening doors for cultural, educational and business exchanges. A sister city relationship is a legal agreement of mutual support that creates long-term partnerships between two cities.
Lauren Poe, the executive director of the Greater Gainesville International Center and former Gainesville mayor, said the partnership creates opportunities for economic development on both sides.
“Every sister city relationship is different than every other one,” Poe said. “I mean, they are unique. And so it’s really up to the groups at each setting to decide what their priorities are.”
He said the two cities need to identify two or three priorities, create a work plan and determine ways to track progress. The cities have already started brainstorming ways of enabling this economic exchange, Poe said.
Partnership benefits
The partnership’s main benefit is easier technology exchange and more efficient economic deals between the two cities. This is especially pertinent because both Gainesville and Rio Preto have dozens of technology startups.
Dr. Renata Tarraf Fernandes, a delegate from Rio Preto, sees room for partnerships in medical entrepreneurship. During her visit to Gainesville, she learned how to implement UF biotechnology incubators into Rio Preto startups.
While partnership deals must abide by the law for technology imports, she said, it can make reaching agreements easier. Although still a bureaucratic process, the sister city status clears the way for informational and technological exchanges.
“Not that it necessarily makes this route easy, but it’s something we already know,” Fernandes said. “We already have a guide. We already know where to go.”
Adriana Neves, director of Conebel, a distribution company for the largest brewery in Latin American and the Caribbean, said Rio Preto has a lot to learn from Gainesville’s approach to entrepreneurship. She admires how the local government works with the university to promote business and company success — something she said is still in its infancy in Rio Preto.
She also believes more possibilities for partnerships and areas for exchange will come with time.
“Certainly, this relationship and this openness on both sides will promote things that we don’t yet see today, but which will be great,” Neves said.
Robson Felix, the director of innovation and startups from the Commercial Association of Rio Preto, believes the two cities can simplify trade procedures through the program.
“The goal is to work from both sides to create or change laws that facilitate access for American investors in Rio Preto and Gainesville,” Felix said.
He intends to work with the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce to look for “low hanging fruits” and find commercial possibilities that can be implemented fast. For example, he said, Rio Preto could export agritechnology products to Gainesville.
Outside of economic benefits, the partnership brings educational and research benefits.
According to Felix, there’s already a partnership between UF researchers and Hospital de Amor — the biggest cancer research center in Latin America located in the city of Barretos, about 62 miles from Rio Preto.
Felix visited Gainesville for the second time during the weeklong exchange. He traveled to the city with his wife for the first time in March to explore and prepare to bring his city’s mayor and delegation.
After the second time around, he said he was even more confident that Rio Preto chose the right community as its first sister city.
“The cultural aspect is very strong in Gainesville … So, there will be a very cool cultural exchange there,” Felix said.
Starting in January, Rio Preto's city hall will start sending a small number of students to study abroad with UF, according to Mario Welber, the city's secretary of economic development and tourism.
Although not included in the original plan, the Brazilian delegates said Rio Preto’s doors will be open to any Gainesville students interested in studying abroad, creating opportunities for not just educational, but cultural exchange.
Partnership origins
Since Gainesville connected with its first sister city, Novorrossiysk, Russia, in 1982, the city has expanded its partnerships with 12 other cities all over the world.
The partnership between Gainesville and Rio Preto resulted from a collaboration of the Greater Gainesville International Center with UF’s Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship.
Welson Tremura, the former director of CAME and a UF professor, was born in Rio Preto.
He saw similarities between the two cities and pitched the partnership to the Greater Gainesville International Center. Tremura also said Rio Preto is compatible with Gainesville in its investments, education, technology, health and “kind of people.”
“It’s a matter of both cities kind of working together,” he said.
Tremura and Poe, the former mayor, spent about a year exploring ways the two cities could collaborate prior to Spring 2024, when they took a delegation from Gainesville to Rio Preto to explore a potential partnership.
Poe believes both cities approached these visits with an open mind and were willing to truly embrace each other’s communities. Now that the partnership is official, its benefits will play out for years to come, he said.
"It's a process,” Poe said. “It's not a one time thing. It's constantly living, and breathing and evolving.”
Contact Bruna Arnaes at bmoreira@alligator.org. Follow her on X @bruna_arnaes.
