San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will return to San Francisco Wednesday after a three-day trip to Bangalore to forge business, research and cultural ties with the “Silicon Valley of India.”
Newsom and a 55-member delegation of business and community leaders from San Francisco, including former Mayor Frank Jordan, made the trip, according to Newsom spokesman Brian Purchia.
“A lot of this all revolves around creating new relationships to improve San Francisco’s economy,” Purchia said. He said the trip involved a number of meetings with high-tech, biotechnology and green technology leaders.
The primary goal of the trip was to “cement the sister-city relationship between San Francisco and Bangalore,” an agreement signed between the cities last year, Purchia said.
The two cities are considered leaders in biotechnology, medical and digital technology, as well as business, education and the arts.
On Monday, Newsom met with the B.S. Yeddyurappa, the chief minister of the state of Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital, and signed seven memorandums of understanding between the cities.
The MOUs relate to arts and culture, trade and business, education and research, health care, the environment, theater and fashion, according to the mayor’s office.
In a statement, Newsom cited “tremendous opportunities to share expertise and work together towards a more sustainable urban future.”
Today, Newsom signed an agreement with Cisco officials in Bangalore to develop a joint vision for a “Sustainable 21st Century San Francisco,” according to the mayor’s office.
The partnership will explore a Living Innovation Laboratory at the planned United Nations Global Compact Center, a facility that will address global warming, and social and economic development, to be situated at Hunters Point.
The center, as well as other planned sustainable urban development projects at Candlestick Point and Treasure Island, are expected to create residential units for 60,000 people, and create as many as 30,000 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs, the mayor’s office said.
