The City of Windhoek and Otjiwarongo Municipality on Tuesday signed a five-year twinning agreement that directs the two municipalities to work together and share information on various development aspects beneficial to both local authority councils.

City of Windhoek Mayor, Sade Gawanas and Otjiwarongo Mayor Gottlieb Shivute signed the agreement on behalf of their local authority councils.

The agreement revolves around local economic development, trade and tourism promotion, capacity building and skills development, town planning and township development strategies and in financial management systems and principles.

It also extends to areas of environment management, health and safety, as well as on information technology and communication strategies.

“We both believe that these areas entered into are of extreme importance in promoting our social economic development that would benefit our local authority councils,” said Mayor Gawanas shortly before signing the documents containing the terms of reference at the event.

Gawanas emphasised the importance of regular communication and feedback from both sides in order to make the components signed smoothly materialise.

On his part, Mayor Shivute of Otjiwarongo said the technical team of his municipality had been waiting for this opportunity as they are eager to learn from the City of Windhoek.

Shivute further stated that this type of agreement existed before and was first entered into by the two municipalities in 2003.

“In 2003, the agreement between us immensely assisted the Otjiwarongo Municipality in areas of human resources, informal settlement management, HIV and AIDS public awareness and exchange of technical services,” he said.

As a result, the Otjiwarongo Municipality again signed a similar twinning agreement with the City of Windhoek in 2008, while the 2016 agreement lapsed in August 2021, said Shivute.

The mayor concluded by saying that tangible results should come from the agreement.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency