Earlier, the first online meeting took place between the representatives of the Spanish municipality of Zafra and the Berezhany municipality of the Ternopil region. As part of the Bridges of Trust initiative, the event became a platform for connecting and discussing potential areas of cooperation between the Ukrainian and Spanish municipalities.
Zafra is a historic Spanish town famous for its culture and architecture. The municipality actively develops tourism and agriculture. For many years, it has been home to food processing companies and consumer goods industry. In general, about 1,500 producers operate in the municipality.
Zafra prioritises the development of culture: there are two museums, and various exhibitions and events take place there.
“Zafra hosts two large fairs, including an annual international agricultural fair. This is a large-scale and important event attended by about 1 million people every year, and 600 different agriculture producers present their products and activities. Culture, tourism, trade and agriculture are the main directions that we can develop jointly with the Berezhany municipality,” said José Carlos Contreras Asturiano, Mayor of Zafra.
Rostyslav Bortnyk, head of the Berezhany municipality, told his Spanish partners about the Ukrainian municipality.
“We have a good geographical location, bordering several regions, and developed transport links. The Berezhany municipality develops agriculture and consumer goods industry, including woodworking. Furthermore, we have food processing companies, well-developed trade and food businesses,” said the mayor.
The head of the Berezhany municipality also told about the dendrological park in the village of Rai with good prospects for further development, one of the best parks in Ukraine.
“We are committed to developing and implementing partnership projects together with the Spanish municipality of Zafra. In particular, these may be agricultural, renewable energy, waste sorting and other projects. Projects funded by international foundations operating in the European Union that can strengthen our mutual relations may be of interest. We are grateful for the opportunity to present our municipality and find international partners that will allow us to implement projects for joint development,” said Rostyslav Bortnyk.
The Zafra counterparts reaffirmed their willingness to cooperate on the creation of a modern rehabilitation care and recreation space for young people in the Berezhany municipality, which can be implemented with funds from the European Union.
In addition, Rostyslav Bortnyk proposed yet another direction, the establishment of cooperation between Spanish and Ukrainian agricultural producers.
The parties agreed to take time to work out more specific proposals and project ideas, which will become the basis for the future partnership.