The solemn ceremony of signing the Twinning Agreement between the City of Mostar and the Italian city of Bassano del Grappa was held on Sunday in the Mostar City Hall, and as it was announced on that occasion, the cooperation between the two cities will take place in various fields.
The mayor of Mostar, Mario Kordić, said that Bassano del Grappa is joining the big family of Mostar’s sister cities with today’s important act.
“The city of Mostar has quite a large number of cities with which it has twinned and with which we maintain active contacts and benefit from it. This whole story began four years ago when the mayor Elena Pavan sent a letter wishing to twin two cities and two bridges. Our two city have a lot of similarities and that was the motive for us to start this story. In further discussions, it was seen that, apart from the bridges themselves, we have more things in common, so we decided to go for twinning,” said Kordić.
He added that this is the first step in cooperation that will greatly help the largest city in Herzegovina.
“What is a priority for me is that we got a friendly city that is in the European Union, considering the event the day before yesterday in BiH (green light for accession negotiations in the EU, op. a.), which opens up additional opportunities for us to apply for European funds.
Bassano is located in the Veneto region, one of the most developed regions in Italy, and we are very proud to have a sister city that will help us a lot,” concluded the mayor of Mostar.
Bassano del Grappa is located in the northern Italian region of Veneto, and with its surroundings it has about 70 thousand inhabitants. The most impressive symbol of this city is the Ponte Vecchio bridge built in 1569, which is another similarity with Mostar.
The mayor of Bassano del Grappe, Elena Pavan, believes that the two cities have very similar stories.
“A lot of useful things will come out of this twinning for both cities. First of all, we have in mind to develop cultural cooperation and cultural exchange, especially between institutions. We also have various projects in mind. We plan to implement the projects in Bassana del Grappa, we copy here and, of course, to develop economic cooperation,” said Pavan.
She particularly emphasized the “Dance Well” project, which helps patients with Parkinson’s disease.
“We want to jointly apply for various projects, especially the ‘Dance Well’ project, which has taken root in our city. It is a project that helps people suffering from Parkinson’s disease to improve the motor skills of their muscles. We develop them with our dance instructors. and our doctors,” said Mayor Pavan.
After signing the agreement, the leaders of the two cities exchanged gifts, Fena news agency writes.
