Sister and Partner Cities

About 2 weeks ago, I had the opportunity to welcome the Mayor of Frankfurt to Yokohama. No la dí la bienvenida personalmente claro, pero era parte del proceso orgánico. Pero estoy adelantándome a mí.

First things first: como ti es probablemente consciente, más más de las ciudades importantes en el mundial intentas establecer relaciones de ciudad de hermana o sociedades con otras ciudades en orden a... bien, que realmente depende de situaciones. A veces es una manera de promover el intercambio cultural, otros tiempos es una manera para empujar el turismo o ganar conocimiento y tecnología en campos diferentes. A friendship between cities is in some ways very similar to a friend or a significant other. They are there to encourage you when you need a push. They will go the extra mile to help you achieve your goals by sharing opinions and lending a hand to carry it through. They will back their words with actions!

Yokohama has of course contracted such cooperative agreements with different cities and ports around the world. Yes, ports too. As a port city, it is also important to find partners with similar needs and goals. And so, I would refer you to the following page for the City of Yokohama where you can find a list of these: http://translate-es.city.yokohama.lg.jp/kokusai/en/exchange/.

Aunque vengo del lado opuesto del país, estoy orgulloso para contar Vancouver, Canadá como uno de las ciudades de la hermana de Yokohama. What makes this relation extra special is that Vancouver and Yokohama are sister cities AND sister ports at the same time. They are especially involved in the field of student exchange. Realmente, de pasado de junio que incluso más se volvieron por la firma de un acuerdo de la escuela de la hermana entre el Punto de Vancouver la Preparatoria Gris y el Medio de Minami de Yokohama y Escuelas secundarias. Both schools wish to give students an early first experience at inter-cultural understanding in the hope of one day reaching world peace.

The year 2011 marked the 45th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Vancouver and Yokohama. Next year will commemorate the 35th anniversary with Constanza, Romania, and the 55th anniversary with San Diego, U.S., the first agreement Yokohama has signed back in 1957. As for Frankfurt and Yokohama, they have agreed to walk hand in hand as partner cities starting on September 27th, 2011.

The main issues this most recent partnership intends to address are global warming, business exchanges and creative cities. The latter may sound vague to some, but the concept is quite simple: encouraging a culture of creativity in urban planning and finding solutions to urban problems.

¡Finalmente, usaré este espacio para desear la vida larga a esta nueva sociedad y decir hola a sus promesas de un mundo mejor!

(Cette compaginan el français del en)