Evaluating city-to-city cooperation: a case study of the Penang and Yokohama experience

Cross border cooperation among local governments has increased in the recent past. This cooperation claims to be an effective tool in enhancing management capacities of participating authorities. However, surprisingly little research and few evaluations of programmes have been undertaken. This paper begins to address these lacunae by examining and evaluating a 9-year technical cooperation and exchange programme between Penang Municipal Council (Malaysia) and Yokohama City (Japan) in the arenas of city planning and management. It outlines the successes and limitations of the cooperation in this instance. For example, the cooperation was successful in that it brought the important concept of pedestrianization and comprehensive urban design planning to inner city area of George Town, Penang, improvements to road maintenance and management, and the implementation of a recycling programme and solid waste data collection activities. At the same time, while the cooperation has had positive impacts for Penang's local government, there has been a relatively marginal role for local citizenry in this cooperation. The paper also highlights key elements that were related to the success of the cooperative effort and argues that city-to-city (C2C) cooperation has potential to support urban development processes. As such, much further work is needed to define the extent to which it can be successfully applied.