Suwon City Strides Toward 'Suwon in the World'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon City is taking strides toward creating a 'Suwon in the World.'

This reflects the city's efforts to broaden its reach to establish itself as a 'global central city' by actively pursuing international exchanges with 19 cities in 14 countries across 6 continents and strengthening its urban competitiveness.

Indeed, on the 1st of last month at the Tours City Hall in France, Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young and Tours Mayor Christophe Bouchet exchanged a ‘letter of intent for friendly cooperation and exchange’ and pledged exchange and cooperation.

The exchange of the ‘letter of intent for friendly cooperation and exchange’ on that day came about as Suwon City gladly accepted a request from the city of Tours. Jerome Tebaldi, Deputy Mayor of Tours, who attended the ‘Local Government International Relations Officers' Workshop’ held in Daegu this past March, told Suwon City, “We hope for an exchange,” and requested, “Please be sure to visit Tours.” Mayor Yeom Tae-young then visited Tours together with a Suwon City delegation.

In February, the city signed a friendship city agreement with Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Exchanges with Kaohsiung had continued for several years, bearing fruit this year. In 2016, officials from Kaohsiung, who were preparing to host the ‘EcoMobility World Festival,’ visited the Haenggung-dong area, where the ‘EcoMobility Suwon 2013’ festival had been held, to benchmark it.

Kaohsiung held the EcoMobility World Festival in October 2017, and Mayor Yeom Tae-young and a Suwon City delegation took part in the festival. The steady exchange and cooperation led to the friendship city agreement.

As the city expands exchange and cooperation with cities around the world, it currently has 17 international sister and friendship cities and 2 exchange and cooperation cities.

Actively engaging with 19 cities worldwide, the city is strengthening friendly relations, promoting its outstanding policies across the globe, and reflecting the good policies of its partner cities in its own municipal administration.

Jo Cheong-sik, Suwon City's First Deputy Mayor, recently visited Cluj-Napoca in Romania and Yalova in Turkey, which marked the 20th anniversary of their sister-city ties, to promote Suwon City and Korea and to discuss exchange and cooperation measures.

Curitiba, Brazil (2006), and Freiburg, Germany (2015), both renowned as environmental cities, are also sister cities. Suwon City, which aims to become one of the ‘world's top 3 environmental cities,’ is actively engaging in policy exchanges with the two cities.

To commemorate its sister-city ties with Freiburg, the city opened the ‘Freiburg Observatory’ at Gwanggyo Lake Park this past March, built in the same form as the observatory in Freiburg's Seepark. The Freiburg Observatory has become a landmark of Gwanggyo Lake Park.

As commemorative projects for the 5th anniversary of their sister-city ties (2020), Suwon City and Freiburg are discussing designating a ‘Suwon Road’ and a ‘Freiburg Road’ in Suwon and Freiburg respectively, implementing an exchange work program for the mayors of both cities, and exchanges in the fields of culture and the arts.

In Siem Reap Province, Cambodia, with which the city formed a sister-city relationship in 2004, a ‘Suwon Village’ was established. In 2007, the city drew up a plan to build Suwon Village as part of its ODA (Official Development Assistance) project, selecting the village of Phnom Krom as Suwon Village and launching a support program.

As a first-phase project, the city supported the construction of village infrastructure starting in 2007, and carried out the support program through three phases until 2018. Over the course of more than 10 years, the city established schools to help residents build a foundation for self-reliance and to prepare for the village's future. In 2016, the city built the ‘Suwon Middle and High School.’ After more than a decade, ‘Suwon’ has become a familiar city to the residents of Siem Reap Province.

This year, the city began its fourth-phase support project. The direction of the fourth-phase project includes ‘creating income and employment conditions for residents,’ ‘improving hygiene and health awareness,’ and ‘creating a sustainable educational environment.’

A city official said, “We will strengthen urban competitiveness by expanding exchange and cooperation with cities around the world,” adding, “We will work even harder to grow into a ‘global central city’ that communicates with the world.”