Tom meets Belgian execs from sister city of Kortrijk

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and some Belgian delegates convened yesterday for the ongoing city-to-city cooperation between Cebu and Kortrijk in Belgium.

The visit has something to do with concerns in education, participatory planning, mobility, traffic management and waste management.

Kortrijk deputy mayor Allan Cnudde said that one of the goals of this city-to-city cooperation is to strengthen the local government and lend better services through meeting and exchange in the local level.

Further, they also want to set up a dialogue on international cooperation. According to them, this will increase their knowledge and experiences and stimulate a more balanced thinking about people, culture and North-South problems (north for the City of Kortrijk and South for the City of Cebu).

The delegates were Allan Cnudde, Andre Desmei, Paul Vandenberche, Sonja Acx and Stijn Vanderdonck from Kortrijk, a Belgian city located in the Flemish province of West Flanders.

It was in 2004 when these Belgian officials first visited Cebu. In the following year, the city government of Cebu sent its official delegation to Kortrijk and later in the same year, the agreement between the two cities was made official.

In 2006, the delegation visited Cebu again and discussed matters concerning waste management and education.

In January of this year, two delegates from Cebu City visited Kortrijk and had briefed them on how the Solid Waste Management Act is implemented here.

“Cebu has really changed a lot, it is now cleaner and greener compared to the past years we’ve been here,” Cnudde said.

Cnudde added that they are “on go of great projects in waste management specifically on composting” because he believes that this could be beneficial in the long run.

“We only have one earth, so we should take care of it and think of the future,” Cnudde said. — Jo-ana Marie P. Desuyo, CNU intern/MEEV