Indonesian Officials Benchmark Suwon's Environmental City Policies

[Suwon Ilbo]=Indonesian officials benchmarked Suwon's exemplary environmental practices as an "Environmental City."

Suwon City and the Suwon International Exchange Center announced on the 5th that they conducted a "Non-Face-to-Face Training on Environmental City Development Policies" from the 23rd of last month to the 2nd of this month, targeting 25 officials including staff from Bandung City, a sister and friendly city of Suwon, central government officials, and provincial government officials.

The training was conducted with environmental field experts from Suwon City introducing Suwon's environmental policies and holding online seminars using video conference programs and online educational platforms from the Suwon Convention Center's video conference room.

The instructors explained ▲Suwon's waste management policies, the process of waste separation and disposal ▲cases of renewable energy development projects led by Suwon citizens, such as solar power projects ▲water circulation city development projects utilizing rainwater ▲Suwon's major environmental education models and achievements ▲Suwon's current water supply situation, sewage management policies, treatment technologies, and facilities.

Training participants conducted an "Action Plan Workshop" where they established environmental policies that could be implemented in Indonesia based on the educational content and planned projects and campaigns.

The trainees strengthened civic participation and governance by strengthening environmental education targeting schools, businesses, and civic organizations to prevent river pollution from garbage and sewage, and by continuously managing and overseeing industrial facilities near rivers.

They also established action plans to strengthen institutional frameworks, such as both the Indonesian central and local governments jointly preparing policies and guidelines related to water supply improvements.

This online training was conducted after the "Environmental City Development Training Project through Citizen Environmental Education and Technology Transfer in Waste and Water Resource Management," jointly proposed by the Suwon International Exchange Center and Suwon City last year, was selected as a 2021 Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) government ministry-proposed global training project.

From 2022 to 2023, the city plans to promote training projects targeting officials from Hai Duong Province in Vietnam and Siem Reap Province in Cambodia, sister and friendly cities of Suwon.