City signs historic cooperation agreement with City of Bujumbura, Burundi This morning, 8 October 2014, I hosted the Executive Mayor of the Bujumbura Municipality, Mr Saidi Juma and a delegation including the Burundian Ambassador to South Africa, His Excellency Isaie Ntirizoshira; Burundi’s Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Thérance Ntahiraja; and Chief of Protocol Services of the Bujumbura Municipality, Mr Jean Bosco Nzisabira. It was my great pleasure to welcome the delegation and I was honoured to sign a historic cooperation agreement between the City of Cape Town and an African city today. This agreement represents what we as the City of Cape Town are trying to achieve with our external relations policy: that is, to share best practice approaches with other African cities, and also to draw from the experience and solutions that work in other cities throughout the continent. It also underlines our Enhanced African Agenda as stated in our Strategic External Relations Policy, wherein we commit ourselves to become a meeting point for East and West and an important connector with, amongst others, new markets of Africa. The signing of today’s agreement will strengthen ties between the two cities in the following areas: · Human Settlements · Information Technology Management · Social Development · The Integrated Development Plan · Solid Waste Management As the City of Cape Town, we recognise that the world is increasingly looking to Africa for investment, opportunity and growth – with some of the world’s fastest growing economies in Africa. In light of the above, it gives me great pleasure to have signed a cooperation agreement with Bujumbura. Apart from functioning as Burundi’s administrative and communications centre, Bujumbura also serves as the economic centre as the city is the main shipping point for most of Burundi’s chief exports, namely coffee, cotton, skins and tin ore. Since 2006, the Burundian government, with the support of mainly the United Nations (UN), focused its efforts on rebuilding the country and its economy as well as infrastructure – specifically that of Bujumbura. These efforts include an extensive Infrastructure Action Plan by the African Development Bank focusing on the upgrade of the Port of Bujumbura, extension of the railway network, and a fibre-optic communications network. This demonstrates many similarities with Cape Town in terms of our infrastructure-led growth strategy, with a key project being the extensive Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) MyCiTi service and our broadband roll-out, all aimed at linking residents to economic and social opportunity. This agreement enables us to build an integrated and sustainable partnership, sharing expertise, research and best practice in the fields covered in this agreement. In conclusion, I hope that this is the start of a fruitful relationship that will enhance progress and benefit both cities.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:09:05 +0000