Welcome to the official website of the World Regions Forum, the first international network aimed at bringing together regional excellence on a global level.
A G-20-like Forum of subnational governments who are recognized leaderships (economic dynamism and innovation capacity) both within their national contexts and on the global stage. They come together to cooperate in a flexible, non-bureaucratic and inclusive way, as they share the responsibility to manage global challenges like innovation, competitiveness, research, environment, welfare.
This is the idea at the core of the World Regions Forum, a network promoted in 2009 by the Lombardy Region, in close cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The word “region” is thus used in a broad sense, including plurality of competencies and degrees of autonomy, but common responsibilities in driving growth and strategic alliances.
Together the partner regions of the Forum contribute to more than 10% of the global GDP.
The global crisis proved that governments of all levels need to play a stronger role in defining the rules for the economic and financial system and for international competition.
Major regions and other sub-national administrative areas show that they are often in a better position than the national governments to react quickly and efficiently to the crisis, identifying the needs of their areas and supporting them in the efforts to recover from the crisis.
The September Forum has gathered political leaders and their delegations from Illinois, California, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Quebec, Nuevo Leon, San Paolo, Buenos Aires, Gauteng, Lombardy, Baden-Württemberg, Madrid, Catalunya, Rhône-Alpes, Saint Petersburg, Shanghai, Singapore, Maharashtra. At the end of the plenary meeting on 30th September representatives from the partner regions have adopted a Final declaration which acknowledges the greater role of regions in the dynamics of economic development should be matched by a strengthening of the role of regional and sub-national governments in global governance, including through innovative tools which engage local representatives and citizens from the outset as an indispensable element for democracy and decentralization. The final declaration also sets out working and cooperation commitments in the areas of researchers’ mobility, cancer care, water management, support to trade and in the cooperation path towards the World Expo which will be held in Milan in 2015.
The second edition of the Forum has opened to partners from the non-governmental sector (companies, universities, research centres) having high-level expertise in the WRF cooperation areas. Actors from the private sector has been associated to institutional delegations and have taken active part in thematic workshops (28th September: workshop on business cooperation; 29th September workshops on researchers’ mobility, environment/water resources, cancer research and care and biobanks) and in dedicated BtoB and BtoG meeting which have been carried out in parallel to the thematic workshops.
WRF 2011 Family photo
The network project, the exchange of experiences and joint initiatives started with the 1st edition of the WRF that was launchedon November 19th to 21st 2009, in Milan: representatives of the world’s most important regions met to discuss together the role of sub-national government in the development challenges, sharing their most successful experiences in impacting on sustainable growth and progress.
They signed at the end of the meeting the“Carta di Milano”stating their willingness to cooperate starting from three main areas of common interest: Knowledge Based Economy, Sustainable Environment and Healthcare.
Common work is coordinated by the Joint Working Team (JWT)gathering at high-level technical level representatives from partner regions who impulse the start-up of cooperation projects in the areas identified during the first World Regions Forum.
The last JWT meeting took place in Milan on November 26th 2010: JWT members shared the path towards the 2nd edition of the World Regions Forum in terms of possible contents, structure and working methods. During dedicated thematic sessions, the following proposals of cooperation were presented and discussed: organizational models for cancer care, biobanks and e-health as regards the cooperation area “Health”; renewable energy, water quality and sustainable agricultural production as regards the cooperation area “Environment and sustainable development”; improving the international mobility of researchers as regards the cooperation area “Knowledge-Based Economy”.