Barcelona, San Francisco?s twin

The Catalan capital has just become ?twins? with another city in the world, the Californian city of San Francisco. Ignasi Cardelús made an agreement with the San Francisco mayor on Monday recognising the cities commonalities.

CNA / Rafa Garrido

July 20, 2010 01:05 AM

Barcelona (CNA).- The delegate for Barcelona City Halls’ Institutional Affairs, Ignasi Cardelús, and the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newson, made an official ‘twin cities’ agreement this Monday between the two cities. According to the agreement, Barcelona and San Francisco will commit to “deepening their collaboration in innovation, leadership, and social transformation, fomenting new economic, scientific, and cultural exchanges”. For Cardelús, “Barcelona and San Francisco have many common projects involving civil rights, transportation politics, infrastructures, new industry, technology and education”.

The joint agreement has been made possible thanks to the consistory of Barcelona and will from both cities. On the part of San Francisco, the agreement has formed a civic committee of distinguished personalities of the business, arts, and university worlds. For Barcelona, the City Hall is restarting a plan developed by the Association of Friends of Gaspar de Portolà (who was the first European settler in California) to form connections between California and Catalonia.

Among the lines of work put on the table include several agreements with Catalan universities between both cities’ ports. The director of the Association of Friends of Gaspar de Portolà, Roman Baiget, attended the ceremony for the agreement. Barcelona is currently ‘twins’ with 24 other cities in the world.