Iñaki Azkuna, Mayor of Bilbao, Spain, awarded the 2012 World Mayor prize

The mayor of the northern Spanish city of Bilbao was today announced as World Mayor for helping transform the Basque city from a declining industrial city into an international centre for tourism and culture.

Organisers of the award, the City Mayors Foundation, chose Iñaki Azkuna for his economic leadership in reducing the city’s debt levels and for boosting cultural activities over his 13-year helm. Tourism was also mentioned with annual visitors increasing from 100,000 in 1996, to 700,000 in 2011.

Speaking from Seville, Azkuna thanked the people of Bilbao for their support over the many years. “This award is important as the city’s name will be everywhere, and I want to share it with the city’s people as they have helped me,” he said. “We still have many things to achieve. We perhaps don’t need great projects but improving the city’s equality is fundamental so the whole city grows together.”

Tann com Hove, Senior Fellow at the City Mayors Foundation, emphasised the city’s economic credentials. “Unlike most cities in Spain and Europe, Bilbao is virtually debt-free. During the years of prosperity in the early part of this century, the city, under the administration of Azkuna, steadily reduced its debt until it was paid off in 2011. The city will now only incur new debt for projects that will strengthen the future of Bilbao.”

Azkuna narrowly beat Lisa Scaffidi, Mayor of Perth, Australia, who took the runner’s up award and the World Mayor Commendation for boosting her city’s international profile and carefully managing urban planning with Western Australia’s mining boom.

In third place came Joko Widodo, Mayor of Surakarta, Indonesia, who became the city’s first directly elected mayor in 2005, and was elected Governor of Jakarta in September 2012. He was credited by the City Mayors Foundation for turning a city with a high crime rate and endemic corruption into one with a bustling arts and cultural scene that has boosted tourism.

The World Mayor Project started in 2004 to raise the profiles of mayors worldwide. Recipients have so far included mayors from Tirana, Athens, Melbourne, Cape Town and Mexico City.

The top 10 mayors for 2012:

1) Iñaki Azkuna, Bilbao, Spain

2) Lisa Scaffidi, Perth, Australia

3) Joko Widodo, Surakarta, Indonesia

4) Régis Labeaume, Québec City, Canada

5) John F Cook, El Paso, USA

6) Park Wan-su, Changwon City, South Korea

7) Len Brown, Auckland, New Zealand

8) Edgardo Pamintuan, Angeles City, Philippines

9) Mouhib Khatir, Zeralda, Algeria

10) Alfonso Sánchez Garza, Matamoros, Mexico