'And we knew about Baguio being a city that emphasizes good governance, digitalization and environmental sustainability, as well as a seat for academic excellence and for a vibrant and creative civil society'
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BAGUIO CITY — European Ambassador Massimo Santoro expressed his admiration to the City Government of Baguio for its policies that make the city better.
Santoro, with the 17 ambassadors of the EU member states, visited the City of Baguio from 27 to 29 January get acquainted with the city and explore opportunities for further collaboration.
Aside from Santoro, the visitors include Ambassadors Dr. Titanilla Tóth, Hungary; Michel Parys, Belgium; Raduta Dana Matache, Romania; Ioannis Pediotis, Greece; Dr. Johann Brieger, Austria; Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin, Denmark; Dr. Andreas Pfaffernoschke, Germany; Marie Fontanel, France; Ričardas Šlepavičius, Lithuania; Karel Hejč, Czechia; Davide Giglio, Italy; Emma Hickey, Ireland; Saija Nurminen, Finland; Nicholas Panayiotou, Cyprus; Ambassador-designate Anna Ferry, Sweden; Chargés d’affaires ad interim Anna Krzak-Danel, Poland; and Dragan Barbutovski, Slovenia.
The ambassador said during a talk with the media practitioners based in Baguio Wednesday that it is important for them to visit places outside of Metro Manila and get first-hand information about the situation in other parts of the country.
“And we knew about Baguio being a city that emphasizes good governance, digitalization and environmental sustainability, as well as a seat for academic excellence and for a vibrant and creative civil society,” Santoro said. He said that their visit in the city confirmed their assumptions.
Santoro said they see the good policies of the city government on good governance when they visited the Command Center of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and the Green Projects.
“We were happy to see that Baguio City’s priorities very much reflect the priorities of the EU in those two critical areas,” he said.
The ambassador disclosed that Baguio has been selected as one of the first 10 cities for the implementation of the Green Economy Program (GEP), which will be extended to up to 60 other local government units in the coming months.
The GEP is a project of the EU in support of the Philippines’ transition towards a green economy and green growth, including circular economy, reducing waste, renewable energy and research with an allocation of P3.6 billion.
“However, together with several of our member states and financial institutions, we expect to mobilize another P28 billion under what we call a “Team Europe” approach. This is part of the EU’s Global Gateway Strategy to boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world,” bared Santoro.
