On July 27, 2023, the Bertoua city council (Cameroon) and the Gwangju city council (South Korea) signed a twinning agreement, the Cameroonian party reveals. The agreement provides for the exchange of best practices and the modernization of the two cities' services in the fields of water, sanitation, capacity building, the environment, sports, education, tourism promotion, agropastoralism, health, economic development, youth entrepreneurship, and natural resource management.

"The major objective sought in this strong action is to facilitate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in each priority area implemented in decentralized local authorities," the Bertoua city council explains. After that agreement, the procedure will continue with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica), the South Korean agency in charge of enhancing international cooperation with partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders, including ministries, public institutions, civil society, companies, and universities.

According to the Bertoua city council, this twinning agreement is in line with the mayor's desire to make Bertoua a "city of the future". Before his election in March 2020, Jean-Marie Dimbele promised to make the eastern regional capital an "emerging city" by facilitating access to education and health care for all, improving roads and creating new road infrastructures, promoting youth entrepreneurship and creating tourist sites and green spaces, among other things. To achieve this, he is banking in particular on "the establishment of genuine win-win relationships through twinning with foreign town halls and communes likely to bring added value to Bertoua's development".

P.N.N