Morocco (ANTARA News) - Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan held separate meetings with Casablanca Mayor, Abdeelaziz Omari, and President of the Prefecture Council of Casablanca-Settat Region, Mustapha Bakkauri, here on Wednesday to discuss the efforts to strengthen relations between the two cities.

Jakarta and Casablanca have business opportunities to offer to their businessmen.

"There are many programs and opportunities for businesses. I will bring along businessmen here," Baswedan noted.

The two cities also agreed to strengthen cooperation in culture and arts, among other things, by conducting exchange of visits of arts missions.

He also invited Casablanca to set up a cultural center, with a building and park featuring typical of Casablanca architecture, in Jakarta.

Baswedan and Bakkauri signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) on upgrading the sister-city relations between Casablanca and Jakarta into sister-province relations, during the meeting with Bakkauri.

"The signing of the LOI is aimed at upgrading the cooperation between Jakarta and Casablanca-Settat region from sister city to sister province," Baswedan revealed.

They also discussed cooperation plans for 2019 in the fields of maritime, tourism, small- and medium-scale entrepreneurship (SME), education and training, and culture and tourism.

The Jakarta governor was in Morocco as a keynote speaker at the Smart City Conference held in Casablanca on Wednesday.

He spoke about the "Strategic Master Planning Green Urban Development."

"The point is to deliver a city as a public service provider, and a city that involves its residents in turning City 2.0 into City 4.0, where technology plays a role as an enabler. This is the crucial role of smart city," he explained.

Baswedan`s participation in the conference on The Third Edition of Smart Cities of Africa in Casablanca 2018 was at the invitation of Omari.

Prior to Morocco, Baswedan visited Istanbul to attend a discussion on water management.

reported by Susylo Asmalyah
(f001/INE)
(T.SYS/A/KR-BSR/C/A014)

Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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