Iowa’s largest county signs agreement with China

Iowa’s most populous county now has a big sister. Polk County has become thefirst county in Iowa to establish a “Sister County” relationship withanother municipality — Tieling, (TEE-ling) China. Polk County spokesmanPhil Roeder (RAY-dur) says a delegation of government and business leadersfrom Tieling is in Des Moines today for a signing ceremony.China is currently Iowa’s 4th largest trading partner. Since Polk County isthe location of Iowa’s government, Roeder says it’s natural that the countybranch out this way to cement more ties with China.Tieling is a city in China with a population around eight-million. That’smore than twice the number of people in all of Iowa. Still, Roeder says PolkCounty and Tieling have many things in common.Not only is this the first time an Iowa county has set up such a foreignrelationship, but Polk County is now among a very few in the U-S to do so.