On January 15-16, 2013, in the city of Mumbai (India), an annual meeting of friendly BRICS cities – St. Petersburg, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Mumbai (India), Qingdao (China) and this year joined Durban (South Africa) – took place.
St. Petersburg Government member, Chairman of St. Petersburg Committee for External Relations A. V. Prokhorenko, Municipal Comissioner of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai Sitaram Kunte, Mayor of Greater Mumbai Sunil Prabhu, Deputy Mayor of Qingdao Li Minczyun, Deputy Mayor of Durban Sikho Kele and Coordinator for External Relations of Rio de Janeiro Prefecture Stelio Marcos Amarante took part in the meeting.
In his speech A. V. Prokhorenko stressed an initiative role of St. Petersburg in creating the mechanism of dialogues between BRICS cities. To his opinion, the idea of founding an association of partner cities, designed in St. Petersburg in 2007, has been realized successfully, and regular meetings of the friendly cities has become a good tradition.
At a discussion, devoted to the issue of big infrastructural projects, CEO of GUP “Vodokanal Sankt-Peterburga” F. V. Karmazinov addressed the audience. He suggested a conception of project for creating a complex of waste water treatment facilities in Mumbai, which was accepted with a great interest by the governors of the cities.
At the end of the meeting, a ceremony of signing a final declaration of 5-party cooperation took place. According to the tradition of succession, the next meeting of friendly BRICS cities will take place in Durban and in Capetown (South Africa) in summer of 2013.