Category: News from Asia & Australasia

4th Thematic Webinar – The Role of Municipalities in Promoting the Renovation Wave

For cities to achieve carbon neutrality, renovating old buildings so that they are energy-efficient is crucial. According to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, buildings represent 40% of total energy consumption and 36% of GHG emissions in the EU. Without such renovation, the net zero carbon goal would be unlikely. On 29 November 2021, IURC Asia &...

IURC Kick-off Meeting in Indonesia

On 23 November, IURC organised a kick-off meeting to launch cooperation between Semarang City and Bandung City in Indonesia and Sofia City in Bulgaria and Rome City in Italy, with Ms. Dini Laraswati, Country Coordinator in Indonesia, as the moderator. The meeting began with opening words from Seth Van Doorn, Project Manager - Foreign Policy Instruments, Delegation of the European...

2nd Round of EU-Malaysia Cities’ Bilateral Exchanges

For the second time since the kick-off meeting, Malaysian and Portuguese pilot cities representatives met online and agreed on cooperation areas, possible pilot actions and possible schedules for the study visits. Three bilateral encounters were organised online: EIXO Atlántico and George Town (Penang State) Maia Municipality + Maiambiente and Seberang Perai (Penang State) Vila Nova de Famalicão and Seberang Perai...

3rd Thematic Webinar – Post COVID-19 Mobility: Bringing Back City Transport

Date & Time: 11th November 2021, 2 – 3 pm IST | 9:30 – 10:30 am CET | 7:30 – 8:30 pm AEDT Location: Zoom Webinar The first event of the regular series on ‘Post COVID-19 and Inclusive Recovery’ focused on mobility with an objective to address the question “How to reinstate public systems and non-motorised means as better ways...

Preparation for Road Map toward Food Smart City

Dini Laraswati, the Country Coordinator in Indonesia of the IURC Asia & Australasia programm made a visit to Bandung City from 12 – 14 November 2021 to participate in a workshop on "Preparation for Road Map toward Food Smart City", organised by Rikolto Indonesia. The three-day event was also attended by representatives from other Indonesian cities, namely Solo City, Depok...

IURC Annual Event: registrations are open!

Join us for the first International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) Annual Event, where over the course of two days you will have the chance to deep dive into the European priorities for cities and regions in the framework of the programme, hear about success stories from different stakeholders and learn about the doors that IURC can open for you....

IURC programme launched in Vietnam

Vietnam became the fifth country in the IURC Asia & Australasia programme to host a kick-off meeting to launch cooperation between the cities of Da Lat and Ha Tinh in Vietnam with the Stuttgart Region Association in Germany and the Colleferro-Latina Functional Area in Italy. The meeting was moderated by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, IURC Country Coordinator for Vietnam,...

IURC experts visit Indian cities

As travelling in India is becoming trouble free, Panagiotis Karamanos, Urban Development Expert, and Ashish Verma, Urban Development Manager, undertook three productive visits to the cities of Gwalior, Gangtok and Panaji from 7-14 October 2021. The technical visits aimed at meeting the new senior administration and technical personnel, including Commissioners, Mayors, Chief Engineers and other key representatives, and inform them...

2nd Thematic Webinar – Decarbonising Cities in Asia-Pacific and Europe

IURC cities engaged in “Race to Zero” dialogue The IURC Asia & Australasia continued to engage the project’s pilot cities in the Thematic Network of “Ecological Transition & Green Deal”, this time focusing on the topic of decarbonisation. The second thematic webinar for the project team organised by the help desk in Japan, which is provided by IGES, “Achieving Carbon...

IURC project team welcomes Bandung to the IURC

The IURC team met today with Bandung city authorities to discuss the cooperation focus. The meeting was attended by the Head of Bandung's Food and Agriculture Division, Mr. Gin Gin Gin Ginanjar, who explained the city's progress on developing sustainable urban food systems, including integrated farming solutions within the COVID-19 pandemics, promoting urban agriculture and short supply chains, as well...