Gulu municipality has twinned with a Japanese city to lobby for education, health and development assistance, Gulu’s Mayor George Labeja told Acholi Times on the sidelines of an infrastructural meeting funded by the World Bank in Gulu
The World Bank is funding 14 municipalities in Uganda, including Gulu, to enhance their institutional performance.
Te two-day meeting took place on Wednesday and Thursday last week at Bomah Hotel in Gulu.
Mayor Labeja and a team of Gulu municipal officials including the town clerk have just returned from a visit of the Japanese city, Omuzano in a move to twin with the city as plans to elevate Gulu to a city status gains momentum.
Labeja said the purpose of their visit to Omuzano was to establish ties with the administration of the city and to lobby for education, health and development assistance.
He revealed that Gulu has now twinned with Omuzano adding that the two have agreed on an educational exchange program which will see students and teachers from Gulu visit Japan and Japanese students and teachers doing the same in Gulu.
He also said a Japanese company which makes towels has agreed to help cotton growers in northern Uganda to from whom the company will then directly buy the cotton.
According to the Mayor, the company has agreed to set up a spinning factory in Gulu and that a piece of land will be identified and allocated to them.
Among the things the mayor says he has lobbied for are solar batteries for the municipal street lights and used medical equipment which are still in good working condition.
The mayor while in Japan also met with the Japanese International Cooperation and Development Assistance (JICA) boss with whom they signed a 68 Billion shillings infrastructural development assistance which work will commence in September 2016.
Gulu municipality which is advocating for a city status is located approximately 360 kilometers from Kampala the capital city of Uganda.
The municipality, like other parts of northern Uganda, is recovering from a 20- year insurgency which left its infrastructure, education, health and other social services in a grim state.
Gulu municipality is among the five municipalities in Uganda which are being planned to be elevated to cities. The others are Mbale, Arua, Hoima, Jinja and Fort Portal.
