The Thematic Workshop on Town Twinning was held in Çanakkale on 18-19 September 2019
The first day of the programme has started with the opening remarks of Gülşad Yalpu, Sector Manager in Delegation of the European Union to Turkey and A. Hakan Atik, Head of Department of Project Implementation of DEUA. Furthermore, sessions were organized under the title of “Town Twinning and City Diplomacy” and “Sustainable Town Twinning” moderated by Prof Dr. Birgül DEMİRTAŞ, Sinan ÖZDEN and Sadun EMREALP. In the sessions, conducted in three groups, discussions were held in the three working groups on various topics such as usage of smart city applications and model implementations by representatives of local authorities in the field of town twinning, development of innovative approaches, how and through which means can city diplomacy be utilized for increasing urban welfare and sustainable local development, changes and improvements in the legal and institutional framework for the sustainability of town twinning. The results of the group studies were presented to all participants in the joint session.
The second day of the workshop continued at the Çanakkale Troy Museum as part of a joint program with the “Smart and Sustainable Cities Summit” organized by the collaboration of Turkey Informatics Foundation, Novusens Smart Cities Institute, Kale Group and Çanakkale Municipality. The programme was started with the opening speeches of the Head of Kale Group Zeynep BODUR OKYAY, the Head of Turkey Informatic Foundation Faruk ECZACIBAŞI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate for EU Affairs Acting Director General for Financial Cooperation and Project Implementation Bülent ÖZCAN and Mayor of Çanakkale Ülgür GÖKHAN. The programme continued with panels on “Sustainable and Smart Cities in the World”, “Sustainable and Smart Mobility” and “Sustainable and Smart Environment” where TWIN Project key stakeholders and representatives of grant projects were panelists. Smart Cities Branch Manager Hakan GÜVEN from Ministry of Environment and Urbanization Directorate of Geographical Information Systems, Hüseyin YILDIRIM from Union of Municipalities of Turkey, Ömer MAZ from Roadmap for Smart Cities Project implemented by Çorum Municipality and Hale Evrim AKMAN from Partnership Project for Smart Cities of the Future implemented by Çanakkale Municipality participated as panelists in the ‘TWIN Project and Smart Cities’ panel moderated by Deputy Secretary General of the Union of Municipalities of Turkey, Kayhan ÖZÜM.
In the event, primarily ‘partnership for smart cities of the future’ and ‘Roadmap for Smart Cities’ and the other grant projects implemented within the scope of Town Twinning Grant Programme Between Turkey and European Union was introduced.