Newsletter «Zurich International»

Some visitors were probably not aware that they are in the festival hub of «Zurich meets Seoul», when they stood in front of Christian Wassmann's Sun Path Pavilion, reminiscent of a large unfolded, shiny white shell, and listened to the sounds of Zurich piano virtuoso Christof Stiefel in the midday heat. The urban and innovative Swiss delegation attracted visitors from Korea with contemporary art and jazz, with scientific symposia, conferences and workshops on topics such as blockchain, smart city and the role of women in urban development or with a much-noticed event on vocational training. The festival was very well received: around 3000 participants attended more than 30 cultural and scientific events. With its website and social media, the festival reached an additional eight million people.

An official delegation from the city council, government council, university, ETH and ZHAW management as well as the City of Winterthur, led by Zurich's district president Carmen Walker-Späh and city president Corine Mauch were visiting Seoul. The visit and the «Zurich meets Seoul» festival confirmed the MOU signed in October 2018 by the two city governments to promote exchange in the fields of e-government, science, culture and tourism. For the first time, a business delegation from Zurich also travelled to Seoul. The delegation met with numerous local companies such as SK-Telekom, Hyundai and Samsung Electronics and made valuable business contacts.

With the festival in Seoul, the City and Canton of Zurich, Zurich Tourism as well as Zurich's universities and the City of Winterthur continued their joint international appearances, which have so far taken them to New York, Milan, London, Hong Kong and San Francisco in order to promote Zurich's exchange and international networking.

For the ninth time, the Smart City Expo World Congress was held in Barcelona from 19 to 21 November. The City of Zurich was also on site with a small delegation to learn about the latest developments in the realm of smart city, meet up with other cities and present its strategies and activities to a broad specialist audience. Anna Schindler presented the Smart City Strategy and the latest initiatives of the City of Zurich in the field of sustainable development, a core objective of the strategy. In addition to the congress, a fair offered a platform for over a thousand exhibitors from leading technology companies, start-ups and cities. The City of Zurich was represented in the context of the Swiss Pavilion. The birdly flight simulator, supported by Nomoko's visualisation of the City of Zurich, enabled the fair participants to make a virtual visit to the Limmatstadt.

On 21 October, Zurich was the starting point of a European study tour of city planners from Oslo and the surrounding area. As growing cities that want to remain attractive in the global competition for locations, Zurich and Oslo face similar challenges. In particular, the topics of regional cooperation with the surrounding communities, densification and mobility are as important to the Norwegian capital as they are to us. The 20-strong delegation gathered information on the topic of «urban densification» in Switzerland during an inspection in Schlieren West. Afterwards they had the opportunity to get to know «Regionale 25 - Projekt Limmatschau» as a regional event and exhibition format and to exchange ideas with the «Planungsdachverband Region Zürich und Umgebung» (RZU) and the Metropolitankonferenz Zürich. The professional exchange of experiences took place on a very concrete level and both cities could learn from each other and inspire each other. Zurich and Oslo regularly exchange information within the framework of the Eurocities network. Eurocities is a European network of cities committed to a shared vision of a sustainable future in which all citizens can enjoy a high quality of life. Over 130 cities with more than 120 million inhabitants from 35 European countries are members of Eurocities. The possibility of networking with European cities makes it an important for Zurich to compare urban services in the European context and to ensure an exchange of knowledge and experience on common challenges.

The  EUROCITIES working group «Prevention of substance abuse» was given an insight into the work of the preventive and harm reduction organizations that are active in Oslo. From 02 to 03 December several European cities were able to learn more about the efforts of the City of Oslo in the field of substance abuse. Zurich was represented by Schutz + Prävention from the Social Department and the Addiction Prevention Centre from the School and Sports Department.

After a general exchange, the approximately 20 participants were divided into two groups focusing on prevention and harm reduction. The first group met up with organizations concerning outreach work, a cannabis detox program and «Perspective», an innovative peer project. Following the open drug scene in Oslo Downtown, the second group visited the «Reception Center», which offers a drug consumption room, a medical service and emergency overnight stays. Furthermore, the national strategy for the prevention of overdoses, in which naloxone is provided to addicts, was presented.

The City of Zurich will host the next meeting, which will take place from 04 to 05 June 2020.

We are looking for an intern for our foreign affairs team. Under the following link you will find all relevant information.

The Foreign Affairs team of Urban Development Zurich wishes you a wonderful Advent season, a peaceful Christmas with your nearest and dearest and a smooth transition from this year to the next. Thank you for your interest over this past year and we wish you all the best for the New Year 2020!

Director Anna Schindler, Christina Wandeler, Karolina Merai, Matthias Handke, Ariane Früh, Simon Maurer