Belize City Joins Hands with Seoul, South Korea
The Belize City and the City of Yeosu, South Korea have enjoyed a fifteen-year sister city relationship; and they further strengthened that cooperation today with a memorandum of understanding that seeks to see both countries benefit. For the first time, Mayor Ju Cheol Hyeon is visiting Latin America and his first visit is to Belize City. Following the exchange of cultural gifts between the mayors, the M.O.U. was signed which sees priority areas of trade, tourism development and advanced technology and other technical assistance outlined. Mayor Darrell Bradley says that both parties will be benefitting from this M.O.U.
Darrell Bradley
Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
“We think that we can have a lot of tourism exchanges, we can have cultural exchanges, and we a retrying to speak specifically about technical assistance, so that Yeosu is a very advanced port city and similar to some of our sister city relationships, that is very akin to some of our circumstances that we face. We look for a lot of technical assistance and guidance about what kind of plans we can implement in Belize and one of the areas that we are focusing quite heavily on is zoning and urban planning and one of the areas we want assistance is in relation to that; technical assistance for urban planning.”
Andrea Polanco
“How are they benefitting from this M.O.U.?”
Darrell Bradley
“Well, I think that Belize is an amazing country – so that in terms of some of the things that I shared, I think that a lot of countries benefit from having diplomatic and cultural and technical assistance, exchanges with Belize. So, that, yes, we may be a developing country, but I think that we have a lot to share with developed countries. In certain parts of Belize, I think our people enjoy a great quality of life and I mentioned this in my presentation, that our commitment in certain quarters to environmental protection is something that the world is clamoring for. Many of these developed countries have a record of rapid industrialization and there tends not to be that emphasis on environmental protection – that is something that I think we can share with the world. I also think that industry, craft, our culture – all of these things I think a relationship like Yeosu can benefit from in terms of interacting with our people, sharing the Belizean warmth, and having a conversation in relation to our values and perspective on what does development mean.”
The municipalities will manage an officer detached service for experts in the priority areas. The service program ranges from six months to one year. Mayor of Yeosu and his delegation will be in Belize until Monday. The team will be also be hosted by the Mayor of San Pedro over the course of the weekend.
