Minister Hendricks and Mayor Sridharan sign grant agreement
Federal Building Minister Barbara Hendricks and Mayor of Bonn, Ashok Sridharan, have signed a grant agreement for investments geared towards strengthening Bonn as a UN location. The total funding of 17 million euros was earmarked in the 2016 federal budget on Minister Hendricks' initiative and comes from the Federal Government's programme "Future Investments".
Federal Minister Hendricks commented: "These investments will make Bonn even more attractive as a UN City and conference location and will improve its chances of attracting more international institutions to the city. In future, the Federal Government will continue to work hard to bring new international organisations to the Federal City. We want Bonn, alongside Geneva and Vienna, to become firmly established as an important European UN City."
Mayor Ashok Sridharan, who signed the agreement together with City Treasurer Professor Dr Ludger Sander, stated: "Since the Bonn-Berlin Act was passed by the German Bundestag, the City of Bonn has been able to rely on support from the Federal Government for strengthening Bonn as an international location. I would like to express my gratitude for this support. The fact that Bonn has become a platform for the international dialogue for sustainability is a success story from which both the City of Bonn and Germany as a whole are benefiting. Both Bonn and Germany have gained high reputations as a result and Bonn will continue to be the excellent host city it has proven to be."
Federal Minister Hendricks and Mayor Sridharan's common goal is to make Bonn a centre for international cooperation. The UN Campus in Bonn is now one of the major UN locations in Europe with around 1,000 employees. The new investments are expected to make Bonn even more attractive.
The grant agreement foresees investments, for instance, in the former German Bundestag plenary building and in the "Platz der Vereinten Nationen" (UN square) in front of the UN Campus in Bonn. In addition, there are plans to co-finance the new extension building for the Bonn International School and the extension and refurbishment of the "Haus der Natur" (House of Nature) in Venusberg turning it into an international forest information centre for international experts, particularly those coming to Bonn for UN conferences.