Topbas: Turkey To Become One Of The Strongest Countries Of The World Soon

Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas said on Tuesday that he believed that Turkey would become one of the strongest countries of the world soon.

“We are achieving this as the whole nation,” Topbas said at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport in his return from Mexico where he attended 3rd World Congress of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) of the United Nations.

Kadir Topbas, Metropolitan Mayor of Istanbul, was earlier elected president of UCLG.

Topbas said UCLG was the most important local management union of the world which administered more than half of the world population.

Thousands of local administrations from 136 of 192 UN countries are members of UCLG.

UCLG World Congress, which convened in Mexico, elected Topbas as UCLG president for 2010-2013 term.

Topbas was the sole candidate after Lisbon Mayor Antonio Costa withdrew.

Mayors and local authority representatives from around the world embarked on a new era of international cooperation with the launching in Paris 2-5 May, 2004 of a new body called United Cities and Local Governments.

AA