TDLC made a courtesy visit to City of Fukuoka and City of Kitakyushu with Sameh Wahba, Regional Director for Sustainable Development (Europe and Central Asia), former Global Director, Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice. During the meeting with the Mayor of Fukuoka, Soichiro Takashima, Sameh expressed his appreciation for the city’s great knowledge-sharing on urban development under TDLC’s City Partnership Program and looked forward to deepening the collaboration with the city, leveraging the experiences of Fukuoka in the development of livable and competitive cities in developing countries. The meeting with the City of Kitakyushu, which was led by Mr. Tomohiko Mihara, former member of the Parliament and former Chair of Japan Chapter of the Parliamentary Network (PNoWB Japan), convened members from the World Bank and other high-level participants from six organizations, including JICA Kyushu. Each organization shared its current work program and discussed potential areas of collaboration.
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City Partnership Program (CPP) ：
The City Partnership Program (CPP) was launched in 2016, drawing on TDLC’s close connections with a number of Japanese cities. It is a critical component of our overall program that is leveraged across all TDLC activities.
Six Japanese cities currently participate in the CPP. The first four—Kitakyushu, Kobe, Toyama, and Yokohama—were selected in July 2016 by a committee of development professionals. Fukuoka and Kyoto became members in 2018.