Kaohsiung City has signed a sister-city agreement with the city of San Pedro, the second-largest coastal town of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire! Mayor Keita Nakaridja Epse Cisse visited Kaohsiung for the first time and met with Mayor Chen Chi-Mai to sign the sister-city agreement, becoming the 41st Sister City of Kaohsiung City. Such twinning has deepened the friendship between Taiwan and Côte d'Ivoire and represents indicative and symbolic progress in the relationship between cities in Taiwan and Africa since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs re-opened its representative office in Côte d'Ivoire. According to Mayor Chen, Kaohsiung and San Pedro are both coastal cities and plan to cooperate in areas such as youth development, education and culture.
The twinning of Kaohsiung and San Pedro is a joint effort by the central and local governments to promote diplomacy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs re-opened a representative office in Côte d'Ivoire in 2022. Since then, it has promoted bilateral investment, trade, and exchanges as part of its project to strengthen its relationship with Africa. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Chih-Chung was the key figure that facilitated the exchanges between Kaohsiung and San Pedro when he was the Taiwanese Representative to France. Kaohsiung City Government, the Taipei Representative Office in Côte d'Ivoire, and San Pedro conducted various rounds of TV conferences before the twinning to discuss potential areas of cooperation.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-Mai warmly received Mayor Cisse and her delegation, who traveled across the globe to come to Taiwan. Mayor Chen shared many governing achievements of Kaohsiung, such as attracting investment from the high-tech sector, promoting digital and net-zero dual-axis transformation, and turning the city into a semiconductor hub and a metropolis of innovation. Both cities expect to focus on exchanges such as port management, smart traffic, and agricultural know-how to promote mutual prosperity. San Pedro is a city with much potential in Africa, and “Kaohsiung and San Pedro both speak a common language: Ocean. Both cities also value freedom greatly," stated Mayor Chen. The twinning of Kaohsiung and San Pedro is expected to facilitate a wide range of substantive cooperation and deepen the friendship between Taiwan and Africa.
As the second largest economic zone of Côte d'Ivoire, San Pedro is also the world’s largest exporting port of cocoa beans. In her opening remark, Mayor Cisse thanked the Kaohsiung City Government for the warm reception. She prepared the introductory video of San Pedro and gave a brief overview of the city personally, including its industry characteristics and diverse charms. “I am amazed by the semiconductor industry and smart traffic system in Kaohsiung," stated Mayor Cisse. She looks forward to fruitful exchanges in areas such as city governance and cultural education with Kaohsiung and trusts that both cities will develop a long-lasting relationship.
Mr. Anthony C. Y. Ho, Director-General of the Department of West Asian and African Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the staff of the Taipei Representative Office in Côte d'Ivoire, also attended and witnessed the twinning ceremony. According to Director-General Ho, “this is the first twinning between the major cities in Taiwan and Côte d'Ivoire in 40 years and an important milestone of the relationship and exchanges between Taiwan and Côte d'Ivoire.” The cooperation and exchange between Kaohsiung and San Pedro will start a new page in the relationship between Taiwan and Africa, specifically Western Africa. Kaohsiung and San Pedro have many things in common, and the relationship between the people of both countries will deepen through activities such as promoting cultural exchanges.
According to Ms. Heidi Chang, Director-General of the Department of Administrative and International Affairs, since this is the first visit by the mayor of San Pedro to Kaohsiung, the city government arranged for the San Pedro delegation to visit the Intelligent Transportation Center and a smart-agriculture startup company to gain more understanding regarding smart applications in city governance. The San Pedro delegation also went on a cultural cruise to learn about the construction and development of Kaohsiung Port and the harbor district, and visited the Pier-2 Art District. To promote cooperation in education and language exchanges, the San Pedro delegation also visited Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and participated in a French language class taught at Sinsing Senior High School to learn about the international and diverse features of Kaohsiung, hoping to lay the foundation for potential cooperation in the future.