Asia Innova is Casa Asia’s main programme devoted to innovation and technological cooperation and it is jointly organised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, as well as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia City Councils. This year’s edition is held on the 10th of July in Madrid (Cecilio Rodríguez Garden pavilion), 11th of July in Valencia and 12th of July in Barcelona at its respective city halls.
Collaboration among cities within the field of urban sustainable development in the latest years has become a priority for the European Union in its relations with Asia. Accelerated urbanisation in Asia is generating important challenges that are similar to those existing in European cities in fields such as sustainable mobility, improvement of the quality of air, infrastructure and waste management, digitalisation or right to housing, among others.
After the good reception of last year’s edition, Asia Innova 2018 will gather representatives of global city associations such as the National Institute of Urban Affairs (India), Citynet, Asian regional network with more than 130 cities and specialised organisations in urban sustainable development (Korea) or Metropolis, association that brings together 137 cities of all over the world (Spain), as well as specialists in urban sustainable development with Jinwon Bae, of the deparment of Territory and Regional Research (Sejong-Korea), Yao Yi, of the Institute of International Affairs of the city of Guangzhou, (China), Pankav Vir Gupta, architect (India), Ryo Wakamiya, of the Office of Roads and Motorways (Yokohama-Japan) and Kazuki Nakamura, of the Deparment of Civil Engineering, (Meijo-Japan).
The purpose of this event is to share the main challenges of represented cities, as well as experiences of success and failure in order to identify collaboration projects with Asia among the different involved agents.
The symposium is structured around 2 roundtables. Moreover, at the session that will take place in Madrid, the first roundtable will approach challenges in urbanisation in Asia and Europe with the participation of representatives of Asian city networks, and the second roundtable is about cities in transformation: experiences of Asian and European cities, delivered by experts in sustainable urban development.
This scheme will be followed in the three cities and every one of them will add the local side, despite the fact that Valencia will place emphasis on urban innovation and environment, whereas in Barcelona the session will focus on valuing challenges and experiences in urban innovation and sustainable mobility.
Promoting Sustainable Cities
Asia is the area of greatest demographic and economic growth of the world. The Asian continent already includes 54% of world population and Asian cities host the largest figure of urban population of the planet.
The increase of urban population in Asia approaches this challenge in a global manner in order to achieve sustainable development and future. European cities are not alien to these changes or to the will of improvement of its citizens’ life quality.
In 2050 70% of world population will be urban, according to the prediction of United Nations and OCDE. In this context the need of a new model of growth is clear as well as the need of sustainable cities.
In China, the population of its cities has been multiplied by 5 in the last 40 years. Guangzhou, precursor of the reform and opening of the Chinese government, is one of the most habitable metropolis of the country and it is known as the “City of Flowers”. The city of Sejong, located around 75 km from Seoul to South Korea, is one of the most sustainable cities of the world and it was designed in order to decongest the capital in harmony with environment.
Yokohama, Japanese port city located 30 km from Tokyo, is pioneer regarding town planning and implementation of green energy. In 2011, Yokohama received the World Smart City Award in Barcelona and in 2013 the Global Green City Award in Berlin.
India faces important challenges regarding urbanisation. The government has started up certain initiatives to alleviate the limited water access of the population challenge, such as Clean India or Smarts Cities Mission, and also projects from municipality such as the city of Pune in Maharastra, the 7th most populated city in India, or Indore in Madhya Pradesh, among others.
Asia Innova website: http://asiainnova.es/2018
Registration Madrid and Barcelona: http://asiainnova.es/2018/registro/
Hashtag: #asiainnova
