iPlace promotes online meetings to discuss sustainability of cities of small dimension
On the following days 13 and 14 of July, Amarante is realizing the kick off of a series of online meetings where cities of small dimension are going to discuss their biggest challenges and how they can make their cities more sustainable and competitive economically and technologically.
How can European cities of small dimension compete in the attraction of investment and talent? How can these cities make the most of global tendencies, supporting the development of it’s businesses and clusters, creating this way more and better employment? How can these cities, and it’s economical ecosystems, in network, can become a platform for commercial trading between companies? How can the historical economy of each city be an inspiration and opportunity for new entrepreneurs and new businesses?
These are some of the questions that these cities of the iPlace network want to find an answer to in the first meeting of the second phase of the project that began in 2020. Amarante (Portugal), Balbriggan (Ireland), Gabrovo (Bulgaria), Grosseto (Italy), Heerlen (Holland), Kocevje (Slovenia), Pärnu (Estonia), Pori (Finland) e Saldus (Latvia) are 10 European cities that are part of the Network of Action Planning of the European programme URBACT.
With this work, the network, with the exchange of experiences between such different cities, has a multilateral learning way that allows all members to improve their own reality.
According to José Luís Gaspar, Mayorbof Amarante, “iPlace is an excellent opportunity of collaboration and knowledge” and “Amarante will do everything to be an exemplary city leader.
During the two years of the second phase of the project, there will be realized different sessions based on learning methodologies available by URBACT that tells the experience and knowledge of each city in the deeping of different themes.
Beyond the work of the network of European cities, there will be a group of local action in each one of them, that will allow to reunite key partners that will think that each city and that development, focused on concrete actions.
iPlace is an opportunity of collaboration and knowledge for all cities involved, because it is about fundamental questions for it’s development, that represent more than 50% of all european cities, that have less than 100 thousand inhabitants. One of the 23 URBACT european projects in course, for the construction of action plans for the sustainable development and it counts with Amarante as city leader of the project that joins the total of 10 cities of Europe.