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Seoul and London forge friendly-city ties

A press release just published by the Seoul Metropolitan Government:

Seoul and London forge friendly-city ties

Boris+Park

SEOUL, 18 December 2015: Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has recently forged closer inter-city ties with London, the city known as a global center of diverse sectors, including art, economy, finance, fashion, medical services, tourism, and transportation.

Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon and London Mayor Boris Johnson signed an agreement to expand and strengthen the relationship between their two cities at Paris City Hall on the morning of December 4, when Mayor Park was in Paris to attend the UNFCCC-related Climate Action Day event.

Under the agreement, the two cities will exchange their expertise and information on exemplary cases in numerous sectors, including climate and the environment; invigoration of the local economy; culture, art, and tourism; smart cities; e-government; urban regeneration; sustainable development; and social reform. In particular, based on the framework adopted by international organizations, such as the C40, the two cities will exchange information on new technologies and exemplary cases pertaining to climate change and the environment and dispatch their officials to forums, training sessions, and international meetings hosted by each other’s cities. They will also exchange information on the investment policies they have adopted and encourage domestic businesses to invest in both cities.

Seoul and London have maintained collaborative exchanges for some time, but this is the first such official agreement made between them. SMG officials expect that the agreement will be an opportunity for Seoul to promote its relatively new status as a global city and share the expertise and experience it has accumulated in the course of its efforts to solve urban problems during its rapid development.

The SMG has forged sister-city ties with 23 cities in foreign countries, including San Francisco, Washington DC, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Beijing, and friendly-city ties with 28 cities, including Berlin, Amsterdam, and Shanghai.

Commenting on the agreement, Mayor Park Won Soon said: “It is hoped that our mutual ties will go a long way toward finding better solutions to the diverse problems that both our capital cities are facing by learning from each other’s accumulated expertise and experience. Especially, as London is a global financial center and home to the headquarters of numerous multinationals, we need to cooperate with the city much more closely.”

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