JIGJIGA – Assosa town, which is Benishangul Gumuz’s state capital is nominated by the Urban Construction and Development Ministry to host the 9th Edition of Ethiopian City Forum as Jigjiga culminated the 8th edition.
The 8th Ethiopian city forum which was held under the theme “Synergy for the Prosperity of Ethiopian Cities” from February 16 – 21 in Jigjiga town was concluded yesterday.
The closing session was attended by Somali State President Mustafa Mohamed and Ministry of Urban Construction and Development Jantirar Abay State Minister of Urban Construction and Development Kasahun Gofe and others.
In his closing remark, Mustafa expressed his deep gratitude and appreciation to residents of the town and also for the participant of the forum. The forum was concluded with great success and expression of unity, he noted.
Ministry of Urban Construction and Development Jantirar Abay for his parts stated that the forum completely changes the image of Jigjiga which saw tragic human suffering and grave human right violation and maladministration some time ago.
“What made the 8th Ethiopian city forum unique is that Jigjiga which was the first town forum from developing cities hosted sister cities drawn from neighboring countries and Jigjiga is the first town to host the city Jantirar noted”. “Forums like this help to promote the culture and traditional assets and heritages of the people as well as strengthening the city to city relations in exchanging experience and learn from each other.” Jantirar underscored
Jantirar said that the participation of sister cities of Ethiopian cities by itself will have a big role to play in knowledge and technology transfer and cultural exchange. Juba, Djibouti, Argesa, Berbera were among the sister cities partook in the forum.
More than 170 cities drawn from across the countries and nine organizations and four sister cities participated in the forum. Small and medium scale manufacturers, individuals, exhibitors groups and other organization were awarded with certificates in recognition of their works, it was learnt.
The Ethiopian Herald February 22/2019
BY HAILE DEMEKE
