Photo: Mumbai-bridge
EU and India to partner on World Cities project
03 June 2015
by Richard Forster
Three Indian cities are being paired with three European cities to promote working relations and policies on urban innovation and green technologies.
Launched in Mumbai during the Conference on Sustainable Urbanisation and World Cities, the European Union backed World Cities project, will also strengthen market opportunities and job creation while pursuing the sustainable economic development of the six cities.
“In both India and the EU, we realise that our policies for economic and social development will be successful only if they are successful in our cities,” said Walter Deffaa, Director General, EU for Regional and Urban Policy. “EU regional and urban policy invests over €50 billion annually in supporting European regions and cities and we, on our side, are keen to share the results of this experience. Our aim is to build a long-term cooperation platform between the EU and India.”
The World Cities project will further strengthen the Mumbai Partnership project–which was established between the EU, Mumbai First, government agencies and other stakeholders in order to address the challenges of urbanisation in Mumbai.
The programme will not only provide links between the three Indian cities, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Chandigarh and their European counterparts, Copenhagen, Stuttgart and the Lazio Region, but will also provide a unique opportunity to the three Indian cities to collaborate and learn from the experiences of China, Japan and Canada, that are the other country partners for the EU in the World Cities project.
Narinder Nayar, Chairman, Mumbai First, said, “The considerable experience of the European cities will help Mumbai to restore its position as urbs prima in Indis.”
The cities will now cooperate for six months on specific topics decided among themselves after which the EU will organise a five-day working meeting and site visits of the nominated Indian city delegates with their EU counterparts in selected EU cities in November 2015. The concluding meeting will be held in India, with suggested prospects and take-aways for both India and the EU in February 2016.
The World Cities project, which originated in the European Parliament, aims to promote long-term working relations between cities of the EU and non-EU partner countries, including India.
