By Prosper Makene
Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam City Council and the South Korean City of Busan have entered into a sister agreement so as support each other in areas related to strengthening the diplomatic ties between the two countries, which have seen forward-looking relationships since 1992.
The discussions for the sister agreement began last year in April and progressed through various meetings between officials from both City Councils of Dar es Salaam and Busan.
The agreement was signed in Busan City, South Korea at the Western Josun Hotel attended by Busan City Mayor Park Hyeong-joon, Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Albert John Chalamila, and Dar es Salaam Mayor Omary Said Kumbilamoto.
The agreement opens up opportunities for mutual exchanges and cooperation in various fields such as ports, logistics, fisheries, ICT, education, transportation, and waste treatment. It will also foster people-to-people exchanges, tourism, and urban greening industries.
Speaking about the Cooperation Agreement signed, Mayor Park of the City of Busan has pointed out that his City is ready to cooperate with the City of Dar es Salaam on capacity building, providing training opportunities for employees, construction of development projects, improvement of infrastructure, energy, art, films, waste management and environmental protection
After the signing, the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Albert Chalamila, who led the Dar es Salaam delegation on a 4-day visit to Korea, described the move as a strategy that will open up new opportunities for cooperation between the two cities in important sectors such as Development, Business, Economy and Social Welfare.
Speaking about this collaboration Mr Namwambe, the Tanzanian Embassy Officer in South Korea noted that the agreement is the result of the Embassy's efforts to encourage and promote cooperation between government institutions, the private sector and promote people-to-people cooperation between Tanzania and Korea to facilitate the implementation of the Economic Diplomacy policy.