Union of Municipalities of Marmara Supports URBAN 2009 Fair

The 13th Local Government Necessities and Urban Furniture Fair "URBAN 2009" was organised in TÜYAP Istanbul Exhibition and Convention Center between 17-20 December 2009, with the support of Union of Municipalities of Marmara and Union of Municipalities of Turkey. The presentation stand of two unions drew great interest of representatives of municipalities throughout Turkey.

The two-day seminar, co-organised by UMM and UMT, took place in the framework of URBAN 2009 fair and brought together around 180 mayors from all parts of Turkey. In the first day, Prof. Dr. Ömer Dinçer, Turkish Minister of Labour and Social Security and architect of the local government reform, addressed mayors and spoke on strategic planning and development of local authorities. On the second day, Mehmet Özhaseki, Mayor of Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, presented teh experience of his city in generating revenues and resources at local level.

"Local Governments to Become More Transparent"

Minister Dinçer made presentation on "Strategic Management in Municipalities." Minister Dincer started his words with explaining the methods of the shift from classical public administration to modern public administration system. "In defining our cities, we should not content ourselves with the geographical definition. Instead, our cities should be defined through relations and networks to be established. Classical concept of municipal work is no longer sufficient for our cities. Visionary leaders and teams are needed. People of the city also must be entrepreneurs and should play a role in the development of their regions. Local governments must head towards participatory governance in a multi-actor context: Local governments must become more auditable and transparent with broad participation including NGOs", he said.

"Kayseri Style Municipal Work"'

Speaking on the panel "Vision, Projects and Financial Management", Mayor Özhaseki started his speech with emphasis that the biggest problem encountered by municipalities is financing the projects. "In our country we see a large number of investments started many years ago and not yet finished. Many of those investments remain unfinished due to the lack of allowances. In Kayseri, we were able to offer services and commission the huge investments without spending almost a penny from the public money thanks to our innovative "Kayseri Municipality Model", he said. "Now, this model began to become prevalent across the country", the mayor said, adding that they attracted very big investments to Kayseri.

Source: http://www.marmara.gov.tr/newsdetail.aspx?newsId=716

Source: http://www.marmara.gov.tr/newsdetail.aspx?newsId=717