Category: News from Asia & Australasia

EU – New Zealand Cities: New Plymouth and Vilnius Collaboration

After the joint EU-NZ cities' meetings on 13 and 27 September 2021, bilateral events between New Plymouth and Vilnius took place on 5 October, 19 October, 3 November, 23 November, and 14 December. The topics discussed at these meetings covered: waste management; local partnerships; hydrogen; emission neutrality; the 2050 roadmap; energy-efficient buildings; and central city strategy. In all of these...

IURC experts in India underscore importance of multi-stakeholder engagement

Our urban development experts in India, Prachi Merchant, Ansu Susan Alexander, Ashish Verma and Panagiotis Karamanos published an article in the Shashwat journal discussing the significance of the IURC programme’s emphasis on the quadruple helix approach, or the engagement of government, academic, the private sector and civil society, in sustainable urban development. Meaning “eternal” or “sustainable” in Sankrit, Shashwat is the annual magazine of the GRIHA...

EU-Australian Cities: Follow-Up Meeting

The four European and three Australian pilot cities met online to crystallise where substantive work will start in the new year. Whereas the city pairings were confirmed, it was agreed that during the 1st half of 2022 cities would work together in thematic groups, involving experts according to the needs and demands. Herefore, the IURC project team proposed a series...

5th Thematic Webinar – Circular City Hubs: Improving thriving, liveable, resilient urban centres

IURC cities engaged in Circular City Hubs discussions and recommendations Organised on 14 December, the Circular City Hubs thematic webinar was the final one for the 2021 programme year. The IURC Asia & Australasia team attracted 176 registered participants from  23 countries, namely Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland,...

EU-Vietnam Coordination Meeting

The IURC Asia & Australasia project team organised a coordination meeting on 8 December for four EU and Vietnamese cities that are in cooperation within the IURC programme. City representatives included Thomas Kiwitt, Technical Director from the Stuttgart Regional Association; Gianluca Fabbri, Senior Advisor to the Colleferro/Latina Functional Area; Nguyen Duy Duc, Vice Chairman of the Ha Tinh City People...

Cooperation now begins in Australia

Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne will now begin to establish cooperation on urban development with Barcelona, Florence, Hamburg and Madrid within the IURC programme as an online launch was organized for the seven cities on 30 November 2021. The event was moderated by Prof. Bruce Wilson, who is leading a team of academics at RMIT providing helpdesk support to the city-to-city...

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...