Hirotaka Sato, Deputy Mayor of Yokohama, was a speaker at the 58th ADB Annual Meeting held in Milan, Italy, from 4-7 May 2025. In a session discussing inter-city cooperation, he presented the city’s initiatives as an environmentally advanced city in Asia and discussed urban challenges and the importance of partnerships in the growing Asia-Pacific region.

Cooperation between the City of Yokohama and ADB
The ADB’s annual meeting is a forum for 68 member states to discuss development issues and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region, and is usually attended by thousands of government officials, private sector and international organization representatives. A total of 64 policy sessions were held over the four days of this year’s conference under the theme ‘Sharing Experiences, Building Tomorrow’.

Yokohama and the ADB signed a cooperation agreement in 2013 and have cooperated in various fields through training programs for Asian cities, holding workshops with overseas cities and working together on the Asia Smart City Conference. The 50th ADB Annual Meeting in 2017 was held at Pacifico Yokohama.

Yokohama leading the way to green Asia
The session to discuss city-to-city partnerships, entitled ‘Building Resilient, Low-carbon, and Livable Cities through City-to-City Partnerships’, featured speakers from the City of Yokohama, Roberta Casali, Vice-President for Finance and Risk Management of the ADB, Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, Italy, and Oybek Khamraev, Deputy Governor of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, who discussed urban challenges and the importance of partnerships in the growing Asia-Pacific region.

Hirotaka Sato, Deputy Mayor of Yokohama, introduced city planning initiatives carried out together with citizens and businesses, such as the “Carbon Neutral Leading Area” Minato Mirai 21, and stressed that local governments are closest to citizens and businesses, and that it is an important role of cities to connect their potential to policy making.

He also introduced Yokohama’s past achievements in international cooperation, including inter-city cooperation with Southeast Asian cities and the sharing of solutions to urban issues through the Asia Smart City Conference and other events, and called for participation in GREEN x EXPO 2027, which will be held in Yokohama in 2027. He additionally highlighted that the UN ESCAP will hold the 9th Asian-Pacific City Forum in Yokohama during the Expo and encouraged ADB’s cooperation.

ADB Vice-President Roberta Casali emphasized that the ADB will continue to support cities in the Asia-Pacific region to become more resilient and sustainable, while keynote speaker Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, presented the urban management initiatives of the City of Milan, which can serve as a model for urban resilience, innovation and sustainability. He also spoke of public-private partnerships as key to the city’s future.

ADB also officially launched a new ‘City-to-City Partnership Program’. It was emphasized that the program goes beyond traditional cooperation, such as technical assistance and policy formulation support, and is linked to ADB’s ongoing financial support.

Another highlight of the event was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the ADB and the City of Milan to promote sustainable urban development in developing member states.