JAKARTA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Surabaya, capital city of East Java Province, will establish a sister city relationship with Xiamen in east China, a spokesman of the Surabaya municipality said on Saturday.

    The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the sister city cooperation between Surabaya and Xiamen will be signed by Surabaya Mayor Bambang Dwi Hartono and a Xiamen representative here on June 23, Sukamto Hadi said.

    So far, Surabaya has signed MoU on sister city cooperation with Guangzhou of China, Seattle of the United States, Busan of South Korea and Kochi of Japan, Antara news agency reported.

    Cooperation with Xiamen will cover economic, trade, science, technology, education, cultural and health sectors, the spokesman said in Surabaya.

    "We have initiated the establishment of a sister city with Xiamen since three years ago by signing a Letter of Intent (LoI) on Sept. 8, 2003. And after going through a long process which involved the legislators, the foreign affairs ministry, the home affairs ministry and the state secretariat, we will finally manageto sign the MoU," he said. Enditem