She moved here in May to forge business partnerships with companies in her native Wuhan, China, one of Pittsburgh's 12 sister cities.
'I was invited here by the county and the city government,' Ji, 49, said in careful English. 'I am a liaison to contact Pittsburgh companies and try to match them with our companies.'
Ji, who in China is the division chief of the Wuhan foreign affairs office, is spending a year in Pittsburgh and will return to Wuhan in May.
Her temporary assignment here is evidence of how far Pittsburgh's sister city program has come in the last decade, growing from a program that imported and exported youth soccer teams to one that lets Pittsburgh explore business opportunities, share sewerage system technology and exchange culture.
Pittsburgh and Wuhan officials are now discussing setting up direct flights between the two cities, which have never existed. And Ji said student teachers from several Pittsburgh areas and Wuhan schools have traveled back and forth to share ideas and teaching methods.
For decades, Pittsburgh's sister cities weren't much more than window dressing, an opportunity for government leaders and dignitaries to take junkets or for Russian soccer teams to play in Pittsburgh, officials said.
'It was just to have sports delegations to compete with our youths. We needed to take it further,' said Linda Campbell, manager of the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority's new international division established in January.
The Redevelopment Authority works with the Greater Pittsburgh Sister City Association to establish and maintain sister city relationships. Pittsburgh has 12 sister cities, only eight of which are active. There are also 10 proposed new family ties that have not yet been approved.
The idea of two cities oceans apart becoming 'sisters' was planted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower shortly after World War II as a way of promoting peace, according to Cynthia Maka, regional director for Asia at Sister Cities International, a private organization based in Washington, D.C. that serves as a clearinghouse for information on sister city relationships.
About four years ago, sister city committees and local officials began to see economic development, educational and cultural opportunities and decided to revive sister city relationships.
'Interest had started to die off,' said Mike Roy, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Sister City Association.
Earlier this month, officials from Skopje, Macedonia, visited Pittsburgh and watched their city become a sister. They toured the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, Port Authority of Allegheny County and a few other organizations.
A delegation of Cuban officials from sister city Matanzas is expected to visit next week for a look at local companies and government operations.
The visit will be historic, because delegations seeking permission from the Cuban government to visit sister cities have typically been denied in the past, Campbell said.
Plans are not yet finalized, but Campbell said government and educational leaders from Matanzas would visit local schools, including the University of Pittsburgh, and government agencies like the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce.
'A lot of countries want you to first, before getting into economic development exchange, get into a cultural and educational relationship. They're more ready to talk about a business exchange,' said Campbell, whom Mayor Murphy appointed as his office's liaison for international activity.
In order to establish a sister city relationship, Campbell said, the sister city association insists there be a local committee created to do fund raising and maintain the relationship.
'The committee is the essential ingredient,' she said.
An agreement between the cities is then reviewed and approved by the Redevelopment Authority and the local sister city association. Then the president of city council and the mayor sign the agreement in city council chambers, where they hang a flag of the sister city.
Sister city exchanges and other events are mostly funded by the volunteer committees, which raise their own money. Trips taken by government officials are for economic development missions and are paid for through government budgets, Campbell said.
The only funding the Redevelopment Authority provides for sister city programs pays the salaries of Campbell and another staff member, as well as office space, she said.
Often an inquiry about a sister city relationship comes because visitors see similarities between two cities.
'We have two rivers that meet, the Yangtze River and the Han River,' Ji said of Wuhan's likeness to Pittsburgh. 'And steel and iron are our main industry.'
Marc Lukasiak can be reached at mlukasiak@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7939 .
