Secretariat, Taipei City Government

1.Location: Prague (Czech Republic), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), and Helsinki (Finland)
2. Date: January 12–22, 2020
3. Summary:

Mayor Ko led a delegation, which comprised five city councilors (i.e., Hou han-ting, Chang Mao-nan, Keng Wei, Chen Chien-ming, and Hsu Li-hsin) and 35 members from the Taipei City Government’s Department of Education, Department of Economic Development, Development of Health, Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Information Technology, Department of Legal Affairs, International Affairs Advisory Council, and Taipei Zoo to visit Prague (Czech Republic), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), and Helsinki (Finland) from January 12 to 22 in 2020. The purposes of this visit were to learn from these cities’ experiences in domains such as e-government, innovations, start-up businesses, and long-term medical care; pay courtesy calls to important local politicians; establish sister city ties with Prague, Czech; and enhance friendship with Taipei City’s sister city Riga.
 
During this visit, Mayor Ko and Prague Mayor Hřib signed a sister city agreement and witnessed the signing of the memoranda of understanding on the cooperation between two cities’ zoos and on the two cities’ tourism cooperation. In addition to enhancing the exchange and collaboration between the two cities, the two mayors attended the Taipei Night event, in which the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra collaborated on several music pieces. Through music, the two cities hoped to create more opportunities for cultural and arts exchange and to build livable, sustainable cities for their citizens.
 
The delegation also paid a courtesy call to Riga, a sister city of Taipei; visited  the Saeima; paid a courtesy call to members of the Taiwan-Latvia Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group; and visited Tallinn, Estonia, to learn from the city’s experience in practicing e-government; paid a courtesy call to the Helsinki Government to enhance Taipei City’s friendship with it; and visited the Technical Research Centre of Finland and Nokia Corporation. Taipei City exchanged experience with four European cities, through which to learn from the urban governance experiences of the cities, establish channels for collaboration with them, and thereby boost the benefits of city diplomacy.