With the 20 year anniversary of the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC), UBC is holding its XI General Conference in Liepāja, Latvia, 4-7 October 2011.
CEO of Siemens of Finland, Martti Kohtanen, will represent Baltic Development Forum during the anniversary General Conference and touch upon the issues and possibilities for cities in regards to addressing challenges within energy, climate, and water management.
The theme of this year’s General conference is ‘Building on the past, heading for the future’. The conference will focus on issues such as how to strengthen economic attractiveness of cities, how to master climate change, and how to meet the ageing demographic challenge. For more information regarding UBC’s XI General Conference, please go to http://www.ubc-liepaja.com/
The importance of cooperation amongst cities has grown both in the EU and the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), with the most advanced city cooperation occurring in the Baltic Sea Region. Cities have shown their significance in finding new and green solutions and innovations in the context of energy and climate change. Cities – and not least the bigger ones – have become centers of new investment and economic growth. Collaboration between cities has also had a great impact on cross-border cooperation.
Major cities and metropolis are attending the conference, some of which are also members and partners of BDF such as Gdansk, Malmo, and Helsinki. UBC has 100 member cities, which represents one of the strongest network of city cooperation in Europe.
BDF is currently closely cooperating with UBC’s energy commission on an energy project in Kaliningrad, which focuses on energy efficiency.
Baltic Development Forum’s Marcus Andersson participates in the General Conference.
Text: Zane Razāne, BDF