Urban Development Minister to visit Germany to promote investments in smart cities

NEW DELHI: Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu will attend a three day conference on India’s Smart City Mission to be held in Berlin, Germany from tomorrow with the objective of furthering cooperation with Germany and promoting investments.

He will hold detailed talks with his German counterpart and senior officials on the roadmap for developing Bhubaneswar in Odisha, Kochi in Kerala and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu as smart cities with German assistance. These three cities were identified for German collaboration further to Inter-Governmental Consultations between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Dr.Angela Morkel in October,2015 in New Delhi. Detailed presentation on smart city plans of these 3 cities will be made at the conference.

The Berlin visit of Shri Naidu is aimed at intensifying high-level engagement for identifying new opportunities for German companies in the urban development sector offered by the initiative of development of 100 smart cities.

Dr. Barbara Hendricks, Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation, Buildings and Nuclear Safety will also participate in the conference.

The Smart City Conference in Berlin enables dialogue and exchange of information, sharing of knowledge and ideas in respect of technology, innovation and best practices in the area of smart cities.

As a part of the Smart Cities Conference and Metropolitan Solutions-2016 being held concurrently, exhibitions and 20 theme conferences on the issues of urban energy, urban management, urban mobility and logistics, urban water and waste management and urban buildings and public spaces will be held.

During his three day visit, he will meet Speaker of Germany’s Parliament and members of Inter-Parliamentary Group.

Naidu leaves for Berlin tonight. He is accompanied by Dr.Samir Sharma, Additional Secretary and Mission Director of Smart City Mission.