Surabaya, Liverpool Establish Smart City Cooperation

LONDON, UK, May 23 (Antara) - The Surabaya city administration, East Java, has established technical cooperation with the Liverpool city administration on smart city, maritime, and creative economy, noted a statement from Indonesia's Embassy in London received by Antara here, Tuesday. The cooperation was agreed in a letter of intent signed by Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini and Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson on May 17. During a working visit to England on May 16-19, Mayor Rismaharini also held meetings with several businesspersons, particularly those engaged in the creative and maritime economies, and attended the launch of the New Plastics Economy Prize in London. Mayor Anderson expected Mayor Rismaharini to attend a prominent business forum in Liverpool City, the International Business Festival (IBF) 2018. Surabaya's participation in the IBF 2018 is expected to draw the attention of UK businessmen, especially from Liverpool, towards the economic and business potential of Surabaya City. The mayor of Surabaya also made a visit to Liverpool's creative economic development facility, the Foundation of Art and Creative Technology to get an insight into the development of the creative economy and then visited the maritime business support institution, Mersey Maritime. On May 18, Mayor Rismaharini delivered a keynote speaker at the launch of the New Plastics Economy Prize in London, which was a collaboration between the International Sustainability Unit (ISU), the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Eric and Wendy Schmitd Fund for Strategic Innovation. The ISU Institute comes under the Prince Charities Foundation led by Prince Charles. The New Plastics Economy Prize aims to reward those who demonstrate initiative and creativity in recycling and managing plastic waste. Mayor Rismaharini asserted that Surabaya was actively conducting recycling activities and utilizing plastic wastes. The mayor of Surabaya had the opportunity to speak and hand over souvenirs to Prince Charles.