Ilsur Metshin took part in the fifth UCLG World Congress in Barcelona

(Kazan City KZN.RU, 19 February). The fifth World Congress of UCLG «Retreat» was held in Barcelona​​. It was attended by the General Secretaries of the Eurasian, Middle Eastern, North American, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa offices. Interests of the Eurasian branch of the meeting were presented by its President, Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin, general secretary of the office Rasih Sagitov, Deputy Mayor of Kazan Eugeniya Lodvigova and Deputy Head of the Executive Committee for Economic Development Ivan Kuznetsov. The participants discussed the structure of the UCLG, the future presidential elections in organization and agenda of the meeting of the Executive Bureau of world UCLG, which will be held in Kazan in May this year.

Also the Congress was attended by the presidents of all the branches of the organization and mayors in combination. In addition, the most authoritative independent experts from around the world have been invited to work on the formation of a new structure of the organization "United Cities and Local Governments".

This year is the deadline of powers of the President of UCLG, so one of the key topics of the agenda of meetings in Barcelona was the preparation for the election of the new president of the world organization. In October this year election of president, co-president, vice-president and regional presidents of UCLG will be held in Bogota. Participants of the meeting also discussed the future structure of the global UCLG. Mayor of Kazan, who spoke at the meeting as the president of the Eurasian department and co-president of UCLG, spoke on behalf of his colleagues mayors about what changes need to be made in the emerging structure of UCLG. Participants of the meeting agreed on the format of further cooperation, which is especially important in the current conditions of global economic instability and limited financial resources.

No one doubts that the successful work of a mayor of a city, and how effectively he and his team carry out their duties, the quality of life ultimately depends. That is why in the work on improving the standard of living the exchange of experiences of heads of various cities in the world has particular importance. I. Metshin at a meeting called on his colleagues to support the proposal to establish a permanent exchange of experience in implementing successful projects, which, it should be noted, Kazan  has a lot. This could include conducting of large-scale sporting events, transport reform, renewal of parks and gardens, and much more. Mayor urged to improve the work of the organization in several ways, in particular - to build a communication links between global organizations (such as the United Nations) and local of level. I. Metshin also noted in his speech the need to develop more effective programs for mutual learning of members of the world organization, UCLG improve management. The head of Kazan turned to the participants of the meeting in English to maximize the impact of the message for the audience.

At the same time Kazan has much to learn from other cities. For example, it is no coincidence that the venue of the meeting was Barcelona. As Ivan Kuznetsov said, the capital of Catalan is a good example of the so-called "smart city", where questions of infrastructure, transport system, parking space, public transport and many others are well-resolved. Such meetings, according I.Kuznetsov, allow the mayors to obtain expert opinions on many issues, to discuss with colleagues what the difficulties they encountered in the implementation of these reforms. "UCLG is a huge resource, a huge platform, which allows mayors of different cities to improve their efficiency through communication and exchange of lessons learned," - the deputy head of Kazan Executive Committee said.

Activities planned in the framework of the meeting, were held for three days. In the first stage, on February 17, the participants held a so-called "brain storm", where experts have led the analytical results of the UCLG, and representatives of all branches presented their ideas on the future development of the organization.

February 18 mayor-presidents reported on the work done, and then each department has made concrete proposals for the future structure of UCLG. Regional sections of UCLG were invited to submit presentations, concentrating on specific aspects of UCLG work plan. The participants of the event discussed the joint activities and programs for this year.

On the last day of the congress on February 19 the participants identified problems, the solution of which should be reflected in the new strategic document for 2017.

Another key topic of discussion was a large-scale and important event, which will be held in Kazan in May of this year - the global meeting of the Executive Bureau of UCLG. In particular, organizational issues: the agenda of the meeting, number of participants and the requirements for holding the event – were discussed.