The good planning and construction practices promoted in the City of Mérida through the Municipal Urban Development Program, position the Yucatecan capital as an example of guidance for other cities around the world that seek to improve in that area.
Since the beginning of his administration, the Municipal President Renan Barrera Concha, has had the firm objective of making Mérida a world leader in planning and urban construction actions that are environmentally responsible.
—The positioning we have achieved is a sign that we are on the right track in terms of public construction policies, which have a clear approach to sustainability, in which one of our main points is to achieve the orderly and harmonious urban development of the city of Merida – said the mayor.
Within that framework, the City Council, through the Urban Development Department of Mérida, carried out an exchange of experiences on development cooperation on February 27 and 28 with the Ministry of Housing and Development of Belize, with the aim of sharing with that neighboring country the administrative processes that apply in the area of construction permits and one-stop service booths.
Olga Tzec, Project Reform Coordinator for the Belize construction sector, said that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of her country chose Mérida for this cooperation deal, that allows them to learn to improve their processes and strategies.
“Mérida’s internationally recognized reputation for the application of processes in the granting of building permits was taken into account, as well as the quality of customer service offered by the Ayuntamiento staff,” she said.
She stated that currently the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of Belize has a project called “Project Reform of the Construction Sector of Belize” which seeks to simplify and decentralize the processes to grant building permits by opening “one-stop service booths”.
Merida is a city that is recognized for its good practices and that motivated us to have an approach with this city. We leave with a lot of useful information that will help us to improve the construction permit processes, in the area of Urban Planning and Development, ” declared Olga Tzec, Project Reform Coordinator for the Belize construction sector.
She added that the information obtained during the workshops will allow the Belizean delegation to develop a better urban development plan, fully applicable in their country.
“The idea is also to strengthen the bilateral relationship with Mérida to carry out a coordinated work, generate visits between both places in order to exchange experiences that allow will us to improve our planning and management capabilities for the benefit of citizens,” she continued.
For his part, Federico Sauri Molina, Mérida’s director of Urban Development, explained that following the instructions of Mayor Renán Barrera, the City Council of Mérida keeps the doors open to seek ties of communication, mutual understanding and collaboration with other cities in the country around the world who want to know how the work is done here in Mérida.
Belize is a sister country with which we share as well as closeness, coincidences, mutual challenges and goals to meet in the future, ”he said.
He added that in addition to the approach that the Belizean delegation had with the Directorate of Urban Development, it was also contacted with the Municipal Planning Institute, IMPLAN, in order to show the integral work carried out by the municipal government, regarding urbanization.
The workshops and technical meetings that were held included information on strategic issues such as: historical background of territorial administration, database management and online processes, as well as use of tools for land use management, municipal construction experts, and of course, exchange of experiences and opinions.
The Belizean delegation was made up of representatives of the Ministries of Natural Resources, Local Government, Economic Development, Housing and Urban Development and of the Central Office of Information on Technologies of the Ministry of Finance.
The Yucatan TimesNewsroom
