Under the topic “Local and cross-cultural settings and cooperation”, the second status seminar was successfully held in Bangkok as part of the funding priority “Sustainable development of urban regions”.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) organized the second status seminar of the funding priority “Sustainable Development of Urban Regions” (SURE). The Status Seminar took place on 26 and 27 September 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Status Seminar provided a snapshot of the ongoing research of the SURE collaborative projects. Around 100 participants from Germany, Southeast Asia and China exchanged experiences and ideas based on their research latest achievements. During the two days, participants intensively discussed ways of local and cross-cultural settings and cooperations for a sustainable future.
The program included pitches, round tables, market place and several time slots for networking enjoying a sip of coffee or tea. The first day started with a clear message from for the event given by Dr. Verena Hebbecker, funding advisor of the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education was: “Talk to and learn from each other!” and this is exactly what the participants did.
The first days’s program focused on knowledge exchange between the SURE projects and their local partners. On her keynote speech, Asst. Prof. Niramon Serisakul, director of the Urban Design and Development Center of the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, presented several cases depicting challenges and opportunities to build sustainable urban regions in Thailand.
Another highlight of the first day was the “Projects in a Nutshell” session in which the SURE funded projects and their Asian-German delegations provided insights into their current research results. In the roundtable discussion that followed, participants had the opportunity to discuss comparative approaches to urban transformation, the social meaning of sustainability, and urban planning and decision-making towards sustainability. The day ended with a World Café where internal, content, cross-cutting and learning reflections were discussed.
The second day started with keynotes by Frank D´hondt of UN Habitat Vietnam and Joachim Berghoff of GFA Consulting Group. Both offered inspiring insights on alliances for sustainable urban development, the main topic of the second day. At a subsequent marketplace, participants shared experiences and challenges to build cooperations necessary for a successful implementation of the solutions generated by the projects. The two-day status seminar was rounded off by a panel discussion on the topic “Alliances across borders” which included all keynote speakers and Riccardo Maroso of UN Habitat.
