Bill Text: HI HCR149 | 2011 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Sister-state relationship with Maritime Province

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2011-04-19 - (S) Referred to TIA/EDT. [HCR149 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2011-HCR149-Amended.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	149
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011		H.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

REQUESTING THE GOVERNOR TO ESTABLISH A SISTER-STATE RELATIONSHIP THROUGH THE HAWAII SISTER-STATE COMMITTEE WITH THE MARITIME PROVINCE, RUSSIA, FOR ECONOMIC, CULTURAL, SECURITY, AND INTELLECTUAL BENEFITS.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii has become a gathering place for its neighbors in the Pacific Ocean; and

 

     WHEREAS, in expanding its international reach, Hawaii has established a number of sister-state agreements with its Pacific Ocean neighbors; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Maritime Province, also known as Primorsky Krai in Russia, is near to Korea, China, Japan, and other Southeast Asian countries that border the Pacific Ocean; and

 

     WHEREAS, historical precedent exists which exemplify a common desire to maintain a close cultural, commercial, and financial bridge between Russians living in Hawaii and their relatives, friends, and business counterparts in Russia, and the establishment of sister-state relations between Hawaii and the Maritime Province in Russia would help reinforce and cement this common bridge; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Maritime Province and Hawaii have a rich history together, starting in 1803, when the Nadezhda, under the command of Captain Yury Lisiansky, became the first Russian ship from the voyaging era to arrive in Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, more than five decades later in 1859, the Hawaiian Kingdom and Imperial Russia established consular representation in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur and Honolulu, respectively; and

 

     WHEREAS, the relationship between Hawaii and Russia continued when Russian businessmen from Vladivostok vacationed in Hawaii's San Souci area in the 1890s, and Russian workers arrived from Vladivostok to work in Hawaii's sugar and pineapple plantations in the early 1900s; and

 

     WHEREAS, in addition, several Russians made important contributions to Hawaii, as the first President of the Hawaii Territorial Senate was Nikolas Russel Sudzilovskii, a medical doctor and a member of a Russian anti-Imperialist group, who ended up in Hawaii practicing on the Waianae coast, and then growing coffee on the Big Island; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Honorary Russian Consul General in Hawaii, Natasha Owen, has promoted and nurtured ties between Hawaii and Russia as she has worked for decades in Vladivostok assisting in the construction of a hospital for children's diseases that will serve the Maritime Province and has received support from many places, including Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii's academic foundation has been strengthened by Russia after former University of Hawaii President Gregg Sinclair established an Oriental Institute in 1932, and hired the first teachers of Russian history and language, which during the 1961 Pacific Science Association conference in Honolulu several Soviet scientists attended; and

 

     WHEREAS, since then, University of Hawaii has maintained scholarly ties with the Russian Academy of Sciences, universities and major libraries in the Russian Far East in the areas of marine science, astronomy, oceanography, geography, economics, history and Asian-Pacific studies; and

 

     WHEREAS, during the Soviet era, University of Hawaii hosted prominent Soviet scholars in Asian and Pacific specialties each year, and years later former University of Hawaii President Albert Simone signed the first agreement with the Far Eastern State University in 1988; and

 

     WHEREAS, in the past 20 years spanning most summers, Hawaii has sent University of Hawaii students to Russia's Far Eastern State University to study intensive Russian; and

 

     WHEREAS, the newly created Far Eastern Federal University (formed from four universities, including Far Eastern State University) in Vladivostok provides Hawaii the opportunity to continue relations with Russia; and

 

     WHEREAS, the geographic location of Hawaii presents an outstanding opportunity to promote global connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular with the Maritime Province in the Russian Far East, and to proliferate meaningful and mutually rewarding international friendships, understanding between cultures, economic and social interests and technological advancement, and enhanced regional security; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2011, the Senate concurring, that the Governor is requested to establish a sister-state relationship through the Hawaii Sister-State Committee between Hawaii and the Maritime Province, Russia for economic, cultural, security, and intellectual benefits; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor and the Hawaii Sister-State Committee are requested to keep the Legislature fully informed of the process in establishing these relationships and to be involved in formalization; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States; President of the Russian Federation; Governor of the State of Hawaii; Russian Ambassador to the United States; Russian Consul General in San Francisco; Governor of the Maritime Province; Director of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Chairperson of the Hawaii Sister-State Committee; President of the University of Hawaii System; and President of the East-West Center.

Report Title: 

Sister-state relationship with Maritime Province