CUOMO MEETS WITH MEXICAN DELEGATION TO PREPARE FOR TRIP TO MEXICO CITY

WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo met with a Mexican delegation of housing and city planning specialists in Washington this week to prepare for his upcoming trip to Mexico City, where he will participate in a meeting of the U.S./Mexico Bi-National Commission (BNC).

The BNC, which will meet June 3 and 4, will establish the framework for the joint planning of urban development projects by the United States and Mexico and address urban problems facing both nations - including of lack of affordable housing, unemployment and pollution caused by border industries.

The two-day meeting in Washington held Monday and today was a follow-up to meetings in Mexico City and Laredo, Texas. Senior officials from the Mexican counterpart of HUD, from Mexico City, and from the Mexican states of Puebla and Jalisco - along with U.S. city planners - met with Cuomo and other top HUD officials at the Washington meeting. The participants form part of the BNC Committee on Planning and Administration of Metropolitan Regions.

Cuomo will travel to Mexico City with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as part of the U.S. delegation that will participate in the annual BNC meeting, which will be chaired by the Secretary of State and the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations.

"We have a responsibility and opportunity to address the growing need for services and infrastructure in booming metropolitan areas," Cuomo said. "Working in partnership with our Mexican counterparts, we can improve the lives of families in both our countries."

"Through this type of exchange we continue to forge bonds of friendship as well as address the challenges faced by both Mexico and the U.S. as our populations grow and shift with metropolitan regions," said Roberto Salsedo Aquino, Deputy Secretary for SEDESOL, the Mexican equivalent of HUD. He headed the Mexican delegation to the Washington meeting.

Areas of discussion at the Washington meeting included: the role of localities and states in financing public services; city to suburb flight; brownfields redevelopment; community participation in planning and urban management; and bi-national implementation of urban planning projects.

The Mexican delegation also toured Pleasant View Gardens, a HUD-financed public housing revitalization project in Baltimore, and met with representatives from regional development organizations in that city.

Established in 1981, the U.S./ Mexico BNC is made up of 14 working groups that deal with a range of bi-national matters including housing, environmental pollution, social and economic issues, labor, trade and transportation.