Day: tuesday, 9 February 2010

Łódź has a well-developed cooperation in the area of economic and cultural development of the city with self-governments and institutions at the local, regional and also international level.

Łódź cooperates with the neighbouring administrative units within the Association of the Łódzkie Region’s Communes and the Association of the Pilica’s Communes, and also with the other Polish cities within the Association of the Polish Cities and the Union of the Polish Metropolises.
Łódź’s international cooperation is mainly based on the contacts with partner cities. At present Łódź is twinned with 16 cities, which include the cities located in Europe and in the countries from the other continents as well. The exchange of experiences and implementation of joint plans are to facilitate economic development, improve living conditions of the community members, their safety and health, and cultural development of our City. Łódź is also a member of the “Eurocities”, the Association of European Cities. Membership in the “Eurocities” has given us access to lobbying the EU authorities, which aims at establishing the European Urban Policy, and exchanging experiences among the European Metropolises.

Łódź is the only Polish city participating in the third stage of the “Healthy Cities” Programme, which involves some 40 cities from over twenty European countries. Under this programme, Łódź implements “The Directions of Actions which are to Improve Health of the Łódź Population”, the first Polish action plan of health improvement, which treats this issue in a complex manner. “The Directions” is the first document of this type in Europe. Together with the self-government’s authorities, municipalities of Łódzkie’s cities and communes, government’s administration, economic self-government, and Łódź Agency for Regional Development (Łódź Borough is a shareholder) we implement the objectives of the “Development Strategy of the Łódzkie Region”. Under the Regional Contract, we exchange opinions with the regional self-government. Economic promotion of Łódź, attracting and providing service for investors who start up their businesses in the Łódzkie Region, and development of regional infrastructure and investments, are a joint and priority task of the above-mentioned partners.