About 40 international delegates from nine cities convened in Atlanta March 12-14 to share knowledge and practices on how public transit and municipal green space affect economic development.

The environmentally focused second annual Economic Development Partnership Forum, held at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and co-sponsored by CIFAL Atlanta and the City of Atlanta, aimed at making use of the Georgia capital’s extensive relationships with world cities on areas of shared concern.

Providing efficient public transit and green space are quality-of-life issues that have a strong bearing on where companies locate their businesses, said David Smith, chair of the economic development subcommittee of the Atlanta Sister Cities Commission, which helped organize the event.

In the global economy, the need to address these problems as issues of competitiveness has steadily grown.

“If you consider that business these days can go wherever it wants, quality of life is a major factor in determining where business goes,” Mr. Smith said. 

In this vein, the forum was a way for the Atlanta commission to use its usual emphasis on citizen diplomacy and cultural understanding in a way that showcases Atlanta and benefits the economies of the cities involved, he added.

“Since Sister Cities International is a network of city to city relationships, and city governments play a key role in local economic development planning and leadership, it stands to reason that we can use (Atlanta’s) sister city relationships so cities can help one another with economic development,” Mr. Smith said.

Some delegates, like those from Taipei, Taiwan, and Nuremberg, Germany, hailed from locales that have long had formal sister city ties with Atlanta, but the invitations weren’t limited to cities that have historical relationships with Atlanta.

For instance, Chen Guoqiang, the deputy secretary from Ningbo, China, attended the conference.  Ningbo is still looking official approval for a sister city application with Atlanta that has been under consideration since last year.  The commission is also considering an application from Wuhan, China.

Other delegates had no sister city aspirations but were invited to the forum because of their ability to contribute to the discussion.

The representative from Porto Alegre, Brazil, was one such attendee.  Although Atlanta has a formal relationship with Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre was invited because it is investing heavily in a new transit plan to go into effect next year.

Luis Alfonso Senna is the secretary for mobility in Porto Alegre, which is located in the southernmost state in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. He told GlobalAtlanta that his experience at the conference was fruitful.

“I already got some very important experience from other cities, especially Atlanta.  Also, we can get some information about other projects,” Mr. Senna said.

Representatives from Nuremberg, which will send a delegation to Atlanta in December to celebrate a decade of formal sister city ties, said they had been able to share expertise in maintaining the historical integrity of their city while developing its transportation infrastructure.

“The situation in Nuremberg and Atlanta is very different,” said Frank Julich, the director of traffic planning for the city. “The parking and traffic situation is based on the historical development of the city, and we do have very extensive and very efficient systems of public transportation.”

Mr. Julich spoke through Christina Plewinski, who works in Nuremberg’s office of international relations.  Ms. Plewinski helped launch the sister city relationship with Atlanta nearly 10 years ago and said it has helped build business ties between the two locales.

Delegates also came from other sister cities, including Ra’anana, Israel; Montego Bay, Jamaica and Salcedo, Dominican Republic.  Other non-sister-city delegations included Ahmedabad, India, which recently submitted its application for a sister city relationship, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Mr. Smith said the event was more than just a symposium.  It was meant to create lasting relationships between these cities.  To that end, each city is required to draw up an action plan for strengthening its own weaknesses to be addressed at future events.