Internationalisation
Cork City Council will enhance our focus on international relations activities in furtherance of our ongoing relationships with our twinned cities and future potential city to city partnerships on mutual shared agendas. We will continue to strive for open and win-win developments through our sister cities cooperation and as a small country on the western periphery of Europe, it is becoming ever more important for Cork City Council and its strategic partners to build and sustain international connections. Thematic areas which will be pursued include economic, education innovation and entrepreneurship, research, health, tourism, culture, recreation, and public service provision. Cork city already has a very productive range of co-operations in these areas with Cologne, Rennes, Swansea, Coventry, San Francisco and Chinese cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuxi and Shenzen and we look forward to building on them and others over the lifetime of this Plan.
Cork City Council Funding Cork City Council has a healthy financial position. This is a result of adhering to a prudent financial management policy over the last two decades. In that time, the City Council has successfully cleared a significant general reserve deficit and on an annual basis, returned a modest financial surplus which now cumulatively stands at € 893,000. The total expenditure fo r Cork City Council in 2020 is €462m, this comprises of capital funding of €240m and revenue funding of €222m (€37m relating to the expansion area). The revenue budget is funding through rates 43%, housing rents 16%, service income 12%, Irish Water 4% and state funding of 25%. Whilst there may be funding challenges in meeting our ambition to grow our services across the city area, there are options to deliver on this ambition by securing investment. We will manage our finances so that we are in a position to avail of funding sources such as the Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF), Climate Action Fund (CAF) and the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF). Developing our funding models will allow the Council to deliver and improve our broad range of services efficiently. At a strategic level, the City Council is lowly geared which will allow the Council to borrow from large financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank and the Housing Finance Agency. The capacity to deliver crucial infrastructural projects for Cork City will be necessary and hugely significant for Cork City.
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