Kingston mayor deepens ties with Namibian city

MAYOR DELROY Williams on Tuesday handed the keys to the City of Kingston to Dr Job Amupanda, the former mayor of Windhoek, in a symbolic portrayal of the growing relations between Jamaica and Namibia.

Jamaica recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Namibia, which resulted in the formation of the Jamaica-Namibia Joint Committee. This new committee will identify and pursue areas for cooperation in urban development, tourism, and logistics within both countries. This cooperation is expected to be expanded to the Namibian capital city as well.

“We are establishing some tangibles between both cities in the areas of entertainment, culture, sports, waste management and urban development. We believe that there will be meaningful collaboration and cooperation between both cities in these areas,” Williams said at the official handover of the key during a special sitting of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation.

Communication between Kingston and Windhoek is expected to become more frequent as there are multiple activities in entertainment and culture that are planned for the two cities to collaborate on, with hopes of strengthening Jamaican-Namibian relations.

“One aspect we are proposing is to have a reggae festival between Kingston and Windhoek. So, reggae artistes in Namibia are able to come this year in Kingston and participate, and reggae artistes in Jamaica could come to Windhoek for the reggae festival,” he said.

He added that there could be other ideas for collaboration between the two cities that would cater to certain aspects of both cultures, such as sport.

SPORT DEVELOPMENT

“One of the things we can do in terms of sport development is with the Kingston-Windhoek Games for our children that are in the school system, so that they are able to compete in athletics. So, this year we are in Windhoek where the Jamaican athletes, young people, go to Windhoek and we also identify young people in schools in Windhoek for them to compete. The following year we come to Kingston,” Amupanda suggested.

Williams agreed with Amupanda’s sentiments, suggesting that the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) can become involved.

“We’ll set up the working groups and the groups will look at all the groups involved and will certainly report to us. As part of the working group, we have to have the rep from ISSA because that would be very meaningful to having such an event as the Kingston-Windhoek Games and so we’d have the expertise of ISSA. Not just the expertise, but the authority of ISSA to get something like that,” he said

In addition to these activities, the two groups hope to exchange ideas on areas such as development planning, tourism, health, energy, agriculture, and creative industries. Williams said the expected timeline for these events would be for the next year or two to see how well the relationship between the cities and countries has blossomed.

“I would say first let’s set up the working groups and then the working groups will report to us. And we’ll set timelines for the reports, so I would say in another two-three weeks, we should have both working groups come [together] and from there, an initial report two months after that,” he said.

Importantly, Amupanda stressed that the work did not end at “the level of mayors”, as much of the work will depend on the input of the respective staff from both sides.

“Maybe they are going to decide that the games are going to be every second year, maybe they are going to decide that the games are going to be twice a year. Whatever it is that they are going to decide ultimately, we are just giving strategic direction and foresight to be able to see what it is that we want to see,” Amupanda said.

He continued: “We want to see the people of our nations, we want to see our children participating in a framework that was not there before. We want to see the city of Kingston laying their claim in terms of creating a number of sports developments. I’m not saying it hasn’t already happened but this is a contribution that the city can make.”

Williams said he believed that the project will be beneficial to generations to come.

sonae.rose@gleanerjm.com