The first online meeting of representatives of Kalush City Council and the Italian city of Quartu Sant’Elena took place, where potential cooperation between the municipalities was discussed.
In the city of Quartu Sant’Elena, attention is paid to the development of agriculture and urban areas. The city leadership cares about the traditional culture preservation and modern art development, which is reflected in the approaches to the management of territories that belonged to the industrial zone.
“In our city, we always strive to support the representatives of modern art, we have many art institutions and music bands. We know that the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, Kalush Orchestra band, hails from the city of Kalush. It will be a great honour for us to share our experience with the Ukrainian municipality in the development of musical art, so that our bands can communicate with each other and cooperate,” said Chiara Pili, the municipality representative.
Representatives of Quartu Sant’Elena emphasised their readiness to collaborate in another direction – urban renewal, which is quite common in the Italian city.
According to the architect of the Italian city, Aldo Vanini, in Quartu Sant’Elena there are many premises left in the territories that once belonged to the industrial zone.
“We thought for a long time about what to do with such premises. Later, it was decided that they should be repurposed and used for different aims. Therefore, we began to attract funds from the European Union for their restoration. One of these premises is the former building of a brick factory. On its basis, we are creating a space that will become a cultural centre for the city residents. In this urban space, apartments will also be built for young people and pensioners who cannot buy housing on their own. There will also be a place for volunteer centres that could base in one place and carry out their activities. The area around the former factory will turn into a public recreation park,” added Aldo Vanini.
Andrii Naida, head of Kalush municipality, told his Italian colleagues about the city of Kalush, its history and modern life. According to him, Kalush is a powerful industrial city where numerous enterprises operate. There are still many vacant territories and premises in the municipality that can serve as tools for attracting new production.
“In our activities, we apply a universal approach allowing us to develop the local economy, culture, tourism, education, medicine, and other directions. Thanks to the grants received from international funds, we are restoring the cultural monuments of our city, taking care of its history. In the future, we plan to implement new projects, we hope that we will be able to do this already in partnership with the Italian municipality of Quartu Sant’Elena,” Andrii Naida said.
Therefore, the Ukrainian Kalush and the Italian Quartu Sant’Elena have many common directions for potential cooperation. It mainly concerns cooperation in the cultural area, interaction between business associations, development of tourism, agriculture, and exchange of experience in creating new urban spaces for development.
“Our municipalities are similar not only in their interests, but also in their orientation targets. The areas of cooperation discussed today show this. We hope that everything works out for us and that we will be able to implement initiatives for joint development. We thank the U-LEAD with Europe Programme for this opportunity,” Aldo Vanini summed up.