Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

On November 14^th and 15^th, the AMB participated in the meeting City Managers Days, organized by Metropolis, the world association of metropolitan areas, where metropolitan managers from all over the world focused on financing as an essential part of metropolitan governance.

The meeting, held as part of the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC 2018) was also useful to share the particular management of different local and metropolitan governments worldwide. Several world leaders in metropolitan areas visited the actual infrastructures and equipment related to the cycle of waste and the mobility system managed by AMB.

First meeting at the SCEWC

The first day was divided in two parts: the first one on financing as a backbone of metropolitan governance, and the second one, internal, a debate among the different models exposed.

The morning session took place within the Smart City Expo World Congress 2018. Ramon Torra, manager of AMB and Eugeni Villalbí, Project Officer at the Metropolis Observatory, opened the session. In this first session, the publication Financing of Metropolitan Public Services and Policies was presented by Enid Slack, Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance and adjunct professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs, from the University of Toronto. 

Afterwards, it took place a roundtable with experiences and debate among the academic world, international organizations and members of Metropolis: Mabel Vargas, Municipal Finance Secretary in La Paz, Juan Voelker, financial resources director, Eric Ardouin, General Director of the Metropolis and City of Bordeaux, and Antti Moisio, from the OECD.

During the afternoon, a debate took place with 10 representatives responsible for the management of local and metropolitan governments at a technical level. Ramon Torra, manager of AMB, participated in this session with other public managers such as Mabel Vargas, Finance Secretary in La Paz, Juan Voelker, General Director of financial resources in Montevideo, Ana Yanci, responsible for the strategic management in San Salvador, or Jordi Martí, Manager of Barcelona City Council.

Visits to Barcelona facilities

The second day was focused on visualizing on the ground different public services managed from a metropolitan perspective, with the support of different sectoral technicians from AMB. The transport system and the waste are the two services that were explained to different public managers of local and metropolitan governments around the world. Eduard Unzeta, head of Transport Management and Operation Service of the AMB, presented the metropolitan transport system while Joan Miquel Trullols, Director of Waste Prevention and Management Service of AMB, explained the metropolitan waste treatment system. Finally, EcoParc1 plant of Zona Franca were visited as an example of a waste management and treatment facility.