Representatives from 5 European cities and innovative startups were invited to explain their projects and showcase smart cities solutions being developed in their respective cities: Almada (Portugal), Milan (Italy), Seraing (Belgium), Sonderborg (Denmark) and Tartu (Estonia). The common point between these five cities being that they were all involved in H2020 smart city projects.
The objective was to exchange experiences and good practices with Brazilian cities through round tables, networking and meetings.
The discussions focused on various subjects such as green and sustainable development, low carbon transition, smart integrated solutions, local innovation, long term planning or climate actions plan, as so many tools to improve quality of life of citizens. The question of how to finance these projects and other possible obstacles were also discussed.
Concerning the city of Seraing, a representative from ERIGES, the autonomous agency of the city, had the chance to present the long term requalification program of the city, the way it has been implemented for the past ten years and will still be for twenty to thirty more years to go.
The Brazilians were also deeply interested to know about the sustainable and smart involvement of the City willing to improve the quality of life of citizen and users of the territory: climate actions plan, zero carbon emission program, mobility plan, reducing waste program, etc.
The involvement of Seraing in the REMOURBAN project and its role in facilitating replication to other cities was also of great interest.
Representatives from Brazilian cities attending the presentation were very interested and saw as a real encouragement the example of a small town implementing smart and sustainable strategies.
In addition, this meeting was also the occasion for a rich exchange between participating European cities. Contacts were made to insure a further exchange of information.
6 June 2017