November 5, 2007

Mayor Ellis back from South Korea conference; Chinese delegation may be visiting Bluffton soon

Bluffton Mayor Ted Ellis returned home around midnight on Thursday evening, fresh from his latest visit to Asia, this time attending the 2nd United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) World Congress in Jeju, South Korea.

Mayor Ellis’s excursions are certainly paying dividends in terms of putting Bluffton, Indiana on the world map. No sooner had he returned than he was advised that an official delegation from Wanzai County in China will be visiting Bluffton shortly, in response to his June visit to that country.

The arrangements are still very much in the early stages, however, the Chinese delegation have expressed a desire to visit during November or December, so all going to plan, the visit is only a few short weeks away.

This Korean trip however, saw Mayor Ellis and three other Americans meet alongside some 1,800 other delegates from cities all around the world to discuss the various local government issues they each face. The UCLG holds a major conference every three years, and this was the third year.

Mayor Ellis attended in his capacity as International Chairman for the National League of Cities (NLC) here in the United States. It was this group that provided the funding for the trip.

In addition to attending as NLC representative, Mayor Ellis was also scheduled to participate in one of the panel discussions, relating to autonomy and financing local infrastructure.

He found at this conference that cities have very different responsibilities in different countries.

“This whole idea of local autonomy,” reflected Mayor Ellis, “and being able to make our own decisions is not worldwide. (The governments of) many cities are just there to ‘pick up the trash’ and keep the lights on. And we also had a little bit of a debate about privatization of services,” he said.

Despite his role in these discussions, Mayor Ellis picked environmental issues as the major discussion point at the conference.

“Nearly every community is concerned about what they call ‘sustainability,’” summarized Mayor Ellis. “But it’s environmental responsibility and conserving energy while reducing greenhouse gasses. It’s fascinating to listen to how different cities are approaching the same problem from all sorts of different angles.

“Stuttgart (Germany) is one of the leaders and really is putting a lot of plant life in the city. The mayor of Stuttgart told me that if you fly over the city, as you look down, 40 percent of the surface is green. That’s almost just unbelievable for a large city.”

Immigration also proved to be a major concern amongst all delegates.

“Here, it’s generally Mexican immigration that everyone gets excited about,” reflected Mayor Ellis. “In China its Vietnamese immigration, in Germany its Turkish immigration. So there was a lot of talk about this issue, although not much resolution. It’s just that everyone feels a little better that they aren’t the only nation with the problem.”

While it is usually national level government that sets the rules for immigration, it is the local government that is usually left to handle the issue, with very few tools available to help.

“We see that here in the United States,” explained Mayor Ellis. “Someone may be arrested, or even just pulled up at a traffic stop for something. They may be an illegal immigrant, but if we put them in our jail, no-one will come and pick them up.”

Mayor Ellis and the American delegation arrived at the conference a day early, and was able to spend a small amount of time “looking around.”

“Jeju is a small island off the south coast of South Korea,” he explained. “It’s much like how Sicily relates to Italy. So we flew into the island. We got in Friday, and the conference started Sunday. So Saturday we got to go into the city on that island and look at the culture and we went to an open air market, but that was it,” Ellis said.

He found that the younger generation had little concern about North Korea, although some older people still had some reservations.

“We asked our interpreter, who was about 22 or 23,” recalled Mayor Ellis. “She said it really wasn’t a worry for her. For her parents, it had just been so long since North Korea split off that they just were a different country and a different circumstance. But her grandparents are a little bit of a different story.”

Because of the fact the North Korean economy is so poor, modern day South Koreans don’t have much enthusiasm for rejoining the two countries.

“She (the interpreter) just didn’t see any advantage for the South,” explained Mayor Ellis. “Also, her observation, and this is just the opinion of one person of course, but her observation was that there weren’t many families that had been separated (by the division of the two countries). They will see a story about a family being reunited, but she personally didn’t know of anybody that had relatives that they knew lived in North Korea.”

Mayor Ellis also noted major differences at local level and international government with regard to the Middle East.

“The Palestinians and the Israelis, with the support of many European countries, in the small towns are doing many different projects together. And they are having some nice little successes, that fly in the face of the national tensions.”

Mayor Ellis noted the number of long speeches at the conference.

“We Americans like to get to the point, make a decision and get it over with. The Europeans and South American countries love to talk these things through. So it made for some long, long days.”

The connection Mayor Ellis expects will prove to be the most productive is the Canadian connection.

“Earlier this year I attended a convention in Calgary. The Canadians are ahead of us in terms of environmental responsibility, and I have a couple of projects that I just want to steal, literally, from the Canadians. So that Canadian presence is definitely one.

“Of course, we always want to re-enforce the Chinese connections too. They are so relationship driven. Again we like to come in, get our deal signed and get out again, but China and a lot of East Asia just doesn’t work that way. You sit down and eat a meal and talk with them. Then the next time you do the same. It’s hard to define ‘where is the deliverable here,’ but if you don’t do these things, then you never will have one.”

With the Wanzai delegation looking to visit Bluffton before the end of the year, it seems that the Chinese may be enthusiastic about putting some effort into building the relationship from their end too, however.

The tentative delegation includes Mayor Chen Xiaaoping, Vice-Mayor Yuan Hegeng, Mayor’s Assistant Long Youyuan, the Director of the Office of Wanzai County Government Bao Chenggeng and the General Manager of Golden Peak Fireworks Corporation, Chen Shimei.

Mexico is another country that would seem an ideal partner for the United States, given its geographical proximity, and also the concern over immigration. But doing business with Mexican government officials has one very serious difficulty.

“Their municipalities change so frequently,” noted Mayor Ellis. “They turn over mayors regularly, and the guy you saw at the last meeting might not be there any more. So it is very hard to get someone that you can relate to, and build something with. But obviously, if we are ever going to fix the immigration issue, having Mexico on our side would really be helpful.”

Mayor Ellis hopes to present some of the idea he has “stolen” from the Canadians to upcoming Council meetings, which no doubt will also reveal more information relating to the proposed visit by the Chinese delegation.

Bluffton, Indiana is certainly becoming “known” in the international arena, and hopefully some interesting opportunities will soon be opening up.

frank@news-banner.com

Email Frank Shanly

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