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General Assembly
20 October 2000, 12.45 pm – 03.00 pm Welcoming speech by André SANTINI – chairman and mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux This first General Assembly of the Global Cities Dialogue allows us to measure the distance covered since the launch of our network, in HELSINKI, in November of last year. In Bremen, last June the 2nd, the participants in the meeting organised by Senator LEMKE had adopted the Constitution of the GCD, and proposed that a Steering Committee be set up, which would include Issy-les-Moulineaux, Bremen and Stockholm, to prepare the General Assembly. It was also decided to create a website: that has since been done, thanks, in particular, to the city of Seattle. You have the address on the document presenting the network which you have been given. The site is in English, and includes links to the site of Issy-les-Moulineaux for the French version, and to Bremen for the German one. Ideally, each language would thus be represented. For a start, the Helsinki Declaration is available in 12 languages. We can be proud of the number of participants in our General Assembly: 32 mayors, from 23 different countries, are either present here today or have someone representing them. It's an encouraging sign of a common will to share our experiences and to have the voices of mayors heard in the Information Society that is being built. New members Since Bremen, we have been joined by new members: MANCHESTER and the Corporation of LONDON in the United Kingdom, LIMA in Peru, ABRANTES in Portugal, the City of LUXEMBOURG, MADRID in Spain, QUITO, in Ecuador, and GUATEMALA CITY, au Guatemala, who have not been able to join us here, but who have signed the Declaration of Helsinki. We welcomed, during the General Assembly, new members represented by :
Election of the Steering Committee The Global Cities Dialogue is a GLOBAL initiative aiming at bringing together cities from all over the world; so far this objective has not yet been reached. The main number of cities is coming from Europe where the initiative was launched. A further globalisation has definitely to be reached within the next year, and a substantial number of cities from outside Europe should then be playing an active role in the dialogue. Given the current situation, the following structure is elected for the next two years. Chair – Issy-les-Moulineaux Vice-Chairs – Bremen and Stockholm with a special role to assist Issy in this initial phase of the GCD Cities taking a leading role in major regions in the world with the responsibility of disseminating the philosophy of the GCD, of attracting new members and of strengthening its content and activities :
Cities for the regions of North Africa and Middle East are still to be nominated. Cities that are ready to play an active "vertical" role, i.e. to take the lead on a specific strategic issues, of particular relevance for the GCD. These cities are:
Hrádec Kralové: Mr. Dohnal, Advisor to Mayor Vlasak, confirmed their engagement to be part of the steering committee. GCD General Assembly in 2001 To send a strong message about the global nature of the initiative, we propose that the next General Assembly be organised outside of Europe, in October of 2001. Mr Wayne STRONG, representing the state of Victoria (Australia) read the letter of Mr John BRUMBY, Minister for State and Regional Development of Victoria State (Australia), proposing the candidature of the city of Melbourne to welcome the General Assembly. Mr Carl CEDERSCHIOLD, mayor of Stockholm, announces the wish of the city of San Francisco to adhere to the GCD and to welcome the General Assembly. The proposition of the State of Victoria being the most definite, the General assembly gives its agreement. Agenda 2000/2001
As the co-ordinator for the IST–stand, Bremen gave a short description on what is planned for Nice: once again with the support of ISAC, the GCD-cities will have the opportunity to disseminate the GCD-philosophy during the IST exhibition with an Information booth. Cities that would like to promote event within the GCD-framework are welcome to send as soon as possible their material to the venue of the IST. (All detailed information are already mailed by Bremen). Mr Cairoli from ISAC/European Commission completed this description with following more detailed information: The IST is an annual event is organised by the European Commission Information Society Directorate-General, to promote results of its Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme and present main guidelines of the European Union regulatory activities in the ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) field. During the last years, the IST has become a major European event in the IT- field. This year, the IST event is held in close co-operation with the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Economy, Finances and Industry, in the framework of the French Presidency of the European Union. The main themes of the IST conference and its accompanying exhibition are the equal access for everyone, the impact of new technologies on the European competitiveness , technological challenges and sustainability. As a mark of its importance, IST 2000 will be officially inaugurated by Mr. Schwartzenberg, French Minister for Research and Mr. Liikanen, European Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society.
Mr. Celata on behalf of Mayor Rutelli invited the Global Cities Dialogue to the Award ceremony of the Global Junior Challenge on 4 December and would be pleased to host the next meeting of the GCD-Steering committee. The city of Rome has launched an international award for the most innovative technology projects in the field of education and professional training. Mr. Lemke in his capacity of Senator for Education and Sciences of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen appreciated a lot the idea of the City of Rome to initiate a competition like the Global Junior Challenge. Collecting the best IT-projects in the field of education by focussing especially on the younger generation is of crucial importance for the building up of an Information Society. Senator Lemke: "We should never forget that the young generation represents our future and in my opinion providing these young people all over the world with a good education the best thing we can do for them. When looking at the projects participating in the Global Junior Challenge, I was surprised about the diversity of the different projects and I am sure that we can learn a lot from each other in this specific field. I also believe that we can learn a lot not only from other countries but about other countries and we can learn how each country tries to solve the very specific problems it is facing. 586 (five hundred eighty six) projects from about 50 countries are participating in the Global Junior Challenge. Some of them are settled in member cities of the Global Cities Dialogue, for instance Buenos Aires, Bari, Bologna, Cairo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Riga, Rome or Bremen. The City of Bremen itself entered 7 (seven) projects in the 3 (three) categories Children and Young People up to 15 (fifteen) years, up to 18 (eighteen) years and up to 29 (twenty-nine) years. I would like to seize the occasion to wish "good luck" to all of these projects and especially to the city of Rome for the final event of the Global Junior Challenge taking place in Rome on 4 (forth of) December." More information on the website : www.gjc.comune.roma.it
Mr. Tuomo Karakorpi on behalf of Deputy Mayor Korpinen, expressed that his city is for a smaller steering structure. He presented the conference that will take place in Helsinki this year in December. The prosperity of cities presupposes the existence of companies that are able to create new high-quality jobs, but at the same time, in order to succeed in the information economy, future-oriented companies require a highly developed information infrastructure, a well functioning regional innovation system and an attractive living environment for the ICT-employees and their families. The conference examines the new world of work that is emerging within the dynamically growing enterprises of the new information economy. This is an area in which Europe should be able to create new high-quality employment especially in large urban conglomerations, which are increasingly functioning as clusters of different kinds of complex informational activities. More information on the website : www.institute.helsinki.fi/infoeconomy
Mr. Juris Mikelsons, member of the Chair Committee of Education in Riga, invited all participating GCD-cities to attend the 5th International Conference Information Technologies and Telecommunications in the Baltic States called Baltic IT& T 2001. As ancient Hanseatic city Riga will celebrate next year its 800th anniversary. He asked anew for a detailed list of participants relating to the conference Global Forum. "The Baltic IT&T 2001 conference will be the fifth annual "Information Technologies and Telecommunications in the Baltic States" event. Over the course of time, the conference has proved itself, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. The first few conferences were attended mostly by IT&T specialists, but today there is much greater interest in this subject, and participants include representatives of a wide variety of business sectors and professions, including marketing, new service specialists, company and organization managers from the Baltic region and beyond. The conference provides a unique opportunity to share experiences, discuss the latest trends and develop useful and interesting contacts." For more information please visit the official website: www.dtmedia.lv/bitt
The consequences of Information Technologies on democracy will be treated during this Forum, with which the success of the first edition was marked by the emergence of the debate on the vote by Internet in Europe. More information on the website : http://www.issy.com/e-democracy
Mayor Cederschiöld gave a short explanation about the UCEU meeting that took place some days ago in his city. Carl CEDERSCHIÖLD presented the Stockholm Challenge Award, a unique awards programme for pioneering IT projects world wide. The Stockholm Challenge Award focuses on the positive effects of today's information society. The jury, a group of 28 international senior experts, base their evaluation on the following criteria: innovation, user need, sustainability, transferability. Special attention is given to projects that promote democracy, counteract segregation and discrimination or support gender equality. The closing date for project submission is the 1st March, 2001. More information on the website : www.challenge.Stockholm.se
Mr. Bruno Peeters, alderman of the city of Antwerp invited interested cities to attend the opening ceremony of the second building of Telepolis on 18 December 2000 in Antwerp. Among others the Belgian Minister for Telecommunications will be present at this inaugural session. In co-operation with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) a conference is planned on e-government in 2001. This conference has to be confirmed by the city of Antwerp. |
