Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, July 25:

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and its first sister city, Eugene of Oregon state in the USA, are working to strengthen ties and share knowhow for the development of both the cities. Outgoing executive head of the KMC, Hem Sharma Pokhrel, who returned from a goodwill visit to the city recently, said two Nepali students recommended by the Kathmandu-Eugene Sister City Committee and the KMC receive scholarship to study at the Oregon University every year. “A three-member task force has been formed under the leadership of president of the Eugene-Kathmandu Sister City Committee, Dennis Ramsey, to study the areas where two cities could work together,” he said.

Pokhrel said there are a lot of things the KMC can learn from the Eugene city. “KMC can benefit a lot by constructing recreation centres and parks along the river banks,” he said, adding that the officials of the Eugene city were informed about establishing a centre where one can find everything about Nepali culture and tradition. The officials also discussed launching broadcasting programmes on local media to highlight each others’ development works and culture. The chamber of commerce of Eugene city will provide information to

the US tourists on Nepal so as to promote Nepal’s tourism industry. Officials of both the

cities also decided to put each others’ portals on their websites and make an interactive page to inform people about the sister cities. President of the Kathmandu-Eugene Sister City Committee, Sunil Shakya, said KMC can benefit a lot from the well-managed Eugene city.

“We are working to establish school-to-school relationship and learn from them about the use of information technology in development,” he said. He also said that the KMC can learn much on waste management from the US city.