THE Cebu City government had sent delegates to the City of Moscow, Russia, as part of the newly signed program of cooperation between the two cities.
The City’s delegates are scheduled to attend a conference on transportation, with Moscow having one of the most advanced mass transportation in the world. Moscow is the capital and the largest city of the Russian Federation.
Cebu City Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera led the City’s delegates, said Acting Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia, in an interview on Monday afternoon, Aug. 19, 2024.
Garcia said Pesquera, who also sits as chairperson of the Cebu City Tourism and Sisterhood City Commission, will be accompanied by other city hall officials for a one-week visit starting Tuesday.
On Monday, Garcia, with Acting Vice Mayor Donaldo Hontiveros as a witness, signed the “Program of Cooperation” for 2024-2027 between the City of Cebu and the Moscow Government.
The signing ceremony was conducted online, with Garcia and Hontiveros signing the agreement from the Premier Lounge Conference Room at Cebu City Hall.
Councilors Renato Osmeña Jr., Pastor Alcover Jr., and some department heads witnessed the signing with Russian Consul Ivan Gavrilov and Consul Armi Garcia.
In Moscow, Sergey Cheremin, head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations, signed the documents.
Acting Mayor Garcia noted that the program, akin to a sister-city agreement, aims to enhance collaboration and cooperation between the two cities.
He added that the agreement involves exchanges in education, cultural, tourism, and economic development between the two cities.
“(It includes) collaboration on education, in which we will streamline exchange students where we send students to Moscow, while we also receive students from Russia. There was also Cultural exchange,” Garcia said.
“The most important thing is tourism, which they will promote to send tourists to Cebu which will make a significant impact on the development of (our) local economy,” he added.
Garcia said this was already on top of an existing sisterhood agreement with Vladivostok, a Russian city located in the Pacific front in the east. / EHP