Savita Vaidhyanathan, the first Mayor of Indian origin from Cupertino city, the headquarters of Apple in USA, visited here for strong ties between the two cities. Cupertino and Bhubaneswar officially began a sister city relationship on November 24, 2012, with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) by the Mayors of both cities.
The Cupertino-BBSR Sister City Initiative (CBSCI), a community-based non-profit organisation, fosters positive multi-cultural interaction and understanding through art, culture and education exchanges. This community-based non-profit organisation also aims to engage individuals and institutions in helping both cities to be sustainable.
Activities include events and programmes, as well as visits to
Bhubaneswar by Cupertino city Government delegations and members of the Rotary Club. The organization participates in the Diwali festival hosted during autumn by the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce. The CBSCI is engaging individuals and institutions in Cupertino and Bhubaneswar in creating sustainable Smart Cities through an exchange of environmental, economic, educational, and cultural and research ideas, expertise and resource.
“The visit of the Mayor of Cupertino means a lot for us as after becoming the first Smart City proposal in the country the Temple City has created a special place across the globe and the visit will also help the State Capital in getting more and more attention from sectors like tourism and IT,’’ said BMC Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.
The Cupertino Mayor is also scheduled to visit Puri, Konark, Pipili, Dhauli, Gadakana housing project in Bhubaneswar, Khandagiri-Udayagiri,Rajarani Temple, Vending zone, BDA, BSCl, Secretariat, besides Brahmapur and Gopalpur. She will also address a special session of BMC Council on Monday.
It can also be mentioned here that apart from Bhubaneswar, Cupertino is also having Sister Cities relationship with Toyokama in Japan, Hsinchu in Taiwan and Copertino in Italy.