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The InnoCitè Alpine Space Project: Workshop N.5 in Italy

In Italy from 26th to 28th January, the InnoCitè Alpine Space project, which began in October 2008 and ends in June 2011, brought together 8 partners from 5 countries, guests of the Italian partner "Direzione Generale Commercio Fiere e Mercati di Regione Lombardia" in order to take part in workshop N.5.

Headed by the Chamber of Commerce of Lyon as the lead institution, the project is made up of the region of Burgundy, the municipality of Lure, lower Austria, the Salzburg Institute of territorial planning, the Bavarian Ministry of economy, infrastructure, traffic and technology and the regional agency for the development of Koper in Slovenia.

The aim of the project is to propose and test tools intended for local use in public and economic policies. These tools will be accompanied by the introduction of participatory methods that integrate the different decision-makers and policymakers (administrative, political, economic, urban planners, etc...) in public-private partnerships.

"The InnoCité project - as stressed by Franco Nicoli Christian, Councillor for Commercio Fiere e Mercati di Regione Lombardia - is an opportunity to expand on the inherent issues in the medium to long term revival of trade within the Alpine Space integrated programmes. By consolidating a number of international relations and allowing all concerned an opportunity to compare ideas on innovative practices, such as trade districts”,  continued Councillor Nicoli, “we will have greater success in creating helpful tools to aid community subsidiarity".

One of the main strengths of InnoCité is having about 9 sites of experimentation, broken down into 7 regions of Alpine Space, including the Lombard towns of Darfo Boario Terme and Voghera.
InnoCité workshop N.5 led partners to visit the two pilot sites in Lombardy to help expand on and discuss the specific local problems in a transactional context.

For Darfo Boario Terme the InnoCité project involves collaboration with the German case study of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, given the similarities of thermal and naturalistic centres of merit. Action is concentrated in the hamlets of Darfo Boario and Corna, and provides redevelopment of the system of trade, craft and central services of the town with regards tourism; the objective being the improvement in the quality of life both for residents and tourists, and “de-seasoning tourist activity”.
Through the project the aim is to improve attractiveness and the quality of life, taking into account all the fundamental functions of an administrative, economic and social nature, reaching the objective via public-private partnerships.

Participation by Voghera at the European Innocitè project, on the other hand, sees collaboration with the French Council of Neuville Sur Saône, which has been successfully working on the themes of town centre management for some time now.
The aim, also in this case, is to improve, tourist attractiveness and thus stimulate economic activity. Currently, ongoing projects in urban and territorial rehabilitation are in place with a view to polycentric development implemented through  collaboration between the public and private sector in order to improve the quality of life for residents and attract a particular form of tourism due to the better exploitation of current local potential thanks to the proximity of the centres of interest to Alpine Space.

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