Multi-jurisdictional intentional regional communities are, in all cases, “Greater Communities” where “community motive” is at work at a more than a local scale. This newsletter provides a scan of regional community, cooperation and collaboration activity as reported in news media and blogs.
Article text is saved to http://delicious.com/i.see.regions.work within the 1000 count Delicious limit. Geocode system and topic tags are assigned. An RSS feed is available. Top stories are tweeted daily. http://twitter.com/#!/tomchristoffel
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1. 2012 Predictions for Northeast Ohio - ThePlus: Northeast Ohio
… three big developments to keep an eye on in 2012 when it comes to Northeast Ohio's ability to think, plan and act like a region.
This year will mark the first full year of JobsOhio, the new initiative by Gov. Kasich that both privatized and regionalized economic development in the Buckeye State. Here in Northeast Ohio, a large group of private-sector led entitites are collaborating to implement the JobsOhio strategy. This new collaboration - being coordinated by Team NEO - is the next stage in the evolution of Northeast Ohio as an economic region. …
One of the biggest issues JobsOhio and everyone in the economic development world will be dealing with in Ohio this year is the expected boom in oil and gas drilling. This issue wasn't on anyone's New Year's list as recently as 2010, but now it has implications that touch all aspects of our lives here in Northeast Ohio. … And finally, keep an eye on the still evolving Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium. …
2. An Energy-Rail-Broadband Expressway to Quebec - Regional Plan Association
While Montreal is only 330 miles from New York City, there are relatively few links between Canada's second-largest metropolitan area and the tri-state region.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for changing that in last week's State of the State address, when he proposed creating what he dubbed an "energy highway" between Quebec and New York City. Suggesting that private companies would supply the estimated $2 billion in infrastructure, Gov. Cuomo said that new and updated electric transmission lines could bring low-cost and clean hydroelectric power from Quebec as well as wind power from upstate New York to millions of businesses and residential customers in the Downstate Region.
…
RPA supports this idea, and would take it a few steps further. RPA believes we should investigate the potential to create a multi-use corridor linking Montreal with New York City, combining new energy transmission lines with a higher-speed or high-speed rail corridor and ultra-high-speed broadband. …
3. Find Your Foodshed – Planning
… California cities … local food policies … helping to define and shape a regional food infrastructure.
…
Part of the challenge with foodshed planning involves assessing the natural and social boundaries of the region's local food system and identifying the types of agriculture available there. Defining a foodshed can be problematic because, like watersheds, foodsheds are regionally distinctive.
Roots of Change defines a foodshed as "the area of land and waters within a region from which food is produced in order to deliver nutrition to a population base." It includes the land where crops are grown and animals are raised; the natural water sources that support food production; the facilities that process and distribute the food and the markets that buy it; and the communities that consume the food.
A foodshed may cross borders; its size depends on the size of market within the region that needs the food and the capacity of the producers surrounding it to supply that market.
4. Petra region plan wins international award - The Jordan Times
The Strategic Plan for the Petra Region in Jordan, one the “New Seven Wonders of the World”, will receive the 2012 American Planning Association’s Pierre L'Enfant International Planning Award.
… USAID Jordan Tourism Development Project … which supported the development of the plan, the prize recognises planning practices and efforts undertaken outside the United States to promote communities of lasting value, and is being awarded to the Petra strategic plan in recognition of its balancing the need for the preservation of important archaeological resources with the need for increased tourism and economic growth.
“This plan is a critical guide to the preservation of one of the New Seven Wonders of the World … It will serve as a valuable model for regions facing the competing challenges of attracting tourism and protecting cultural resources.”
… government established the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority … to oversee the region, including the Petra Archaeological Park.
5. Kentucky, Ohio businesses: trading spaces - Cincinnati.com
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Omnicare’s river-hopping is just the latest example of a corporation qualifying for lucrative tax breaks by moving to a location that may be only minutes, but an entire city or state, away.
An Enquirer analysis shows that Ohio and Kentucky officials have agreed in recent years to give up at least $61.3 million in taxes to shuffle jobs from one spot to another within the metro area. The moves don’t really create new jobs but merely shift them down the road, across the river or over the state line.
It’s a costly, zero-sum game that benefits corporate bottom lines and political careers but doesn’t really create new paychecks.
“Within-region moves are essentially a net-zero move from an economic development perspective,” … Cincinnati USA Regional Partnership, one of the region’s leading economic development groups.
But they’re not uncommon.
…
Economic development officials preach regional cooperation, but new jobs and tax revenue are impossible to turn away, especially in today’s economy.
6. Dow Chemical's investment strategy extends beyond Midland - MLive.com
When the doors of the new Dow Bay Area Family Y opened … it marked a milestone in regional investment for the Dow Chemical Co.
The company’s signature red diamond and name are now associated with the Bay Area Y, The Dow Event Center in Saginaw and the Dow Diamond baseball stadium in Midland, …
The Fortune 500 company has spent millions to be an integral part of each facility and each community.
It hasn’t happened by chance.
For several years, Dow has pursued a strategy to expand beyond its home base… to help its neighbors succeed.
Dow’s regional investments are equal parts charity, corporate branding and talent recruitment, said Jeff Martin, Dow Chemical’s community relations leader.
“Dow is committed to a regional concept because we understand our community will be far more marketable if we work together to emphasize our collective assets,” ...
Dow’s plan was outlined in a 2007 … focused on the need for the three cities to collaborate to help revitalize the Saginaw Valley
7. Houston's economy is moving forward again - Houston Chronicle
… region found a way to grow in spite of… headwinds, continuing to put the recession behind it a bit more each month.
…
It is not by accident that the Houston region experienced growth over the last two years and is on track for even greater growth this year. Our region learned many lessons from the challenges of the 1980s. In 2005, the Greater Houston Partnership launched a Strategic Plan to chart a course toward future regional economic prosperity. … Opportunity Houston was born to help create 600,000 regional jobs, attract $60 billion in capital investment and expand trade by $120 billion for the greater Houston area by the end of 2015.
The plan targets growth sectors like aerospace/aviation, information technology, energy, biotechnology/life sciences, nanotechnology, advanced manufacturing, distribution and logistics, and corporate headquarters. Since its inception in 2006, Opportunity Houston has reached 75 percent of its jobs goal and 84 percent of its capital investment goal.
In an increasingly challenging economic climate, with dwindling revenue-sharing dollars from the state and bottomed-out property tax values, regional cooperation is rapidly becoming essential for local governments. Lansing City Council President Brian Jeffries … "Moving forward with economic development, I think you'll see a closer relationship with LEAP," … referencing the Lansing Economic Area Partnership. ... Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero has announced deals for regional shared services, including a shared fire chief with the city of East Lansing and shared road patrols from the Ingham County Sheriff.
… Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded a $3 million sustainable communities grant to a coalition of groups from the Greater Lansing region.
At the time, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero said regional cooperation was taking the place of the old "go it alone" philosophy of local government. "When we all pull in the same direction, there's nothing we can't achieve," …
9. Educators across New York considering regional schools - Democrat and Chronicle
A study into the possibility of a regional high school in Ontario County is just the latest example of a broad effort by state educators to save money and improve academic opportunities for students.
Since 2005, New York's Department of State has awarded about 50 grants to school districts to study the issue. Many of the grants funded the early planning for efforts to combine facilities, services and educational programs among school districts, and sometimes with municipalities.
Creating a new system that combines resources is considered an efficient method of saving money and improving the quality of education. Regional high schools are considered an alternative to complete district consolidation because research has shown that consolidations often do not produce the anticipated savings.
… school districts are struggling financially … cap on tax increases … state and federal aid is declining … Dwindling enrollments in many places …
10. Editorial: Regionalism Began With Experian - The Times Record: Western Arkansas
When Experian’s Southwind Call Center opened in Cloverleaf Plaza five years ago, some people just didn’t know what to make of it. … Since then, the call center, which has averaged employment of 500 people a year, has generated a local payroll of $75 million.
…
Five years ago, there was something else about Experian that had people shaking their heads. Why, they wondered, was the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce joining the celebration about the new center? Why didn’t the chamber fight harder to get the jobs on the south side of the river?
The answer of course is that the chamber recognized that a win for Van Buren is a win for the whole greater Fort Smith region. The recruitment of Experian was one of the opening volleys in the war for regionalism.
As Van Buren Mayor Bob Freeman said Wednesday, after Experian, further acts of regionalism were committed, including the creation of the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority.
11. GroWNC launches workgroup for sustainable development in five counties - Mountain Express
GroWNC, Western North Carolina’s Livable Communities Initiative, is a 3-year project to develop regional and local strategies for economic prosperity, quality growth, and sustainable development. A Consortium of local governments, non-profit organizations, and businesses will seek significant input from residents of the region, gather existing and historical data, and synthesize it to create a vision of the future. …
GroWNC is funded by a grant from … (HUD), through the Sustainable Communities Initiative. … It will draw on significant work that has already been accomplished in the region, weaving together existing plans with public involvement. GroWNC is not a central authority over the region's local governments, but instead a way for the region to identify common goals and objectives that can be attained by working together.
Land-of-Sky Regional Council was asked by area local governments to serve as the grant administrator and coordinating agency for GroWNC, …
12. Tea party activists interrupt regional planning meeting in Santa Rosa - PressDemocrat.com
Tensions flared Monday evening during discussions about a long-range plan for land use as well as roads, trains and other transportation systems in Sonoma County and the Bay Area.
Representatives of the Association of Bay Area Governments and Metropolitan Transportation Commission held the meeting at Santa Rosa's Finley Community Center to discuss what the region could look like in 2040 and to get input on transportation, housing and other land uses.
A vocal group of about 20 tea party activists interrupted the speakers and audience with charges that the government can't be trusted.
A woman pushed a sign that read “protect property rights”…
… Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Terry Anderson. … helped facilitate the meeting for a while …
“We're here to try to keep people from violating the law that says you can't disrupt a public meeting,” Anderson said.
The activists appeared to oppose public transportation and to hold a general mistrust of government.
…
The movement to finally align Bay Area transportation planning with land-use plans for housing and other development has caught the attention of the tea party, and that is a very good thing.
Not because the conservatives' essentially anti-planning perspective is the right one for this region -- it's not -- but because public meetings that normally would have been yawners now are drawing impassioned, standing-room-only crowds …
At most sessions so far, the laissez-faire tea party has been countered by environmental advocates such as the Greenbelt Alliance, which opposes sprawl but supports development within existing city borders. Residents not locked into either philosophy can learn from the exchange as well as speak their own minds. Unfortunately, the meetings are so popular that registration is required, …
The regional plan is still in development, however. There's plenty of time to influence it and, if you're a tea party follower, try to weaken it. Check out onebayarea.org
14. Regional growth plan looks at such places as North Texas Street - Daily Republic
The evolving One Bay Area plan looks at where to put 770,000 new residences expected to be needed by 2040 in the nine Bay Area counties. …
Work on the One Bay Area plan is being led by the Association of Bay Area Governments and Metropolitan Transportation Commission, with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District also involved. … All of the scenarios deemphasize having new suburbs built on open space far from mass transit hubs …
Rather, areas that have been developed for decades but have room for infill projects would handle some of the growth load. …
In Fairfield, one scenario shows 2,720 residences being built on West Texas Street, 1,970 on North Texas Street …
Driving the regional planning is a law passed by the state Legislature in 2008. It requires regions to integrate their land use and transportation planning and also try to reduce per-capita greenhouse gas emissions.
Building more residences closer to mass transit hubs …
15. Regional Misery Distribution - Early Warning Blog
Apropos of the latest Archdruid report, I went in search of some data on the geographic distribution of long-term income growth in the US. So far, the most useful thing I found is this Brookings Institute interactive map. It's not exactly what I'm looking for but the above shows the change in median household income 2000-2010 by metropolitan area.
That's a pretty bleak looking map isn't it? There's hardly anywhere in the country that ordinary folks improved their lot over the last decade. Still - some places are worse than others with the midwest and upper south and Florida being hardest hit. Across these areas, median income declined 15-25%: that's a really dramatic change in material standard of living. It's also worth noting that it's even worse than it looks in the sense that the blue circles are on a quite different scale than the red circles.
I also made the same map for 2000-2007 to see how much of this is due to the housing bust:
16. One region's cradle-to-college approach - Seattle Times Newspaper
The year-old Community Center for Education Results has galvanized hundreds of key civic players to build a road map toward improving education, cradle to college, in South King County.
… civic and corporate partners are working with the center, including the region's seven school superintendents, eight mayors and the leaders of the six community and technical colleges in the area. Other partners include community groups, social-service agencies, housing authorities and nonprofit foundations critical to funding. Boeing is part of the partnership. The aerospace company knows it will need thousands of skilled employees and values a talented, diverse workforce.
The overall goal is to double the number of students by 2020 who are on track to graduate from college or earn a career credential. …
Known as the Road Map Region, the area of concern includes the Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton and Tukwila school districts and the southern part of the Seattle school district. …
17. Harrisburg region ranks among top-paying spots to work - PennLive.com
The city of Harrisburg might be on the brink of financial collapse, but workers throughout the metro Harrisburg area are doing better financially than most across the country, according to one recent study.
Realestate.aol.com has ranked the region ninth in the U.S. for cities with the highest-paying jobs. Metro Harrisburg includes the Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is made up of Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties.
…
Manchester, N.H., was ranked No. 1 on the list and Springfield, Mass. was ranked 12th.
Many people mistakenly tend to think Harrisburg’s fiscal troubles speak for the region as well, said David Black, president and CEO of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber.
“There are 103 municipalities [in metro Harrisburg], and 102 of them are doing pretty well,” Black said. “[The list] didn’t factor in cost of living here. The cost of living obviously is lower here, and if that were factored in, that would raise metro Harrisburg up on the scale.”
18. Mayor attends meeting that looks toward neighborly collaboration – Twinsburg Bulletin
Representatives from 11 communities, including Twinsburg, and the Ohio Department of Transportation gathered … to kick off a regional planning effort at the invitation of new Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska.
Due to a weak economy and decreasing revenue from local and state sources, Broska said communities need to save money by collaborating — from shared service equipment, to shared safety services, to a regional economic development philosophy.
“It is my belief that the days of standing alone have gone by the wayside. We must make a commitment to continue to search for the answers that will help us better the communities in which we work and live.”
Several attendees said the group of mayors and service directors should go after “low-hanging fruit” first — shared efforts that provide quick, easy savings or services.
Twinsburg Mayor Katherine Procop said she would provide the group additional information about anti-poaching agreements adopted among several Summit County communities
Ameresco, Inc., a leading energy efficiency and renewable energy company, announced today that it has been unanimously selected by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) as its regional energy services company (ESCO). MAPC is the regional planning agency serving the people who live and work in the 101 cities and towns of Metropolitan Boston. As part of MAPC's selection, Ameresco is eligible to immediately enter into energy savings performance contract (ESPC) agreements with the 14 cities and towns initially listed in MAPC's Request for Qualifications (RFQ) issued.
"While we have been doing great work to help rebuild our economy, many communities are still facing tough economic times," said Senator Karen Spilka. "This collaboration will help keep these cities and towns on a path to energy efficiency while also giving municipalities additional tools to meet the fiscal challenges we all face as our economy continues to recover."
...
20. State Offers Funds to Develop Regional "Buy Local" Campaigns – New York
New York State Agriculture Commissioner … announced the availability of $200,000 in funds to support new and existing regional "buy local" food and agricultural campaigns throughout the State. This program is funded by a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant and will be conducted in coordination with the State's Pride of New York Program.
"There's no doubt that consumers want to buy locally produced food," the Commissioner said. "What we have found is that regional "buy local" campaigns further raise the profile of local products in a specific region and they often have the opportunity to provide a range of services and activities that help local producers market their products and assist consumers in identifying local products."
The goal of the Regional "Buy Local" Campaign Development Program is to increase consumer awareness, increase recognition in the marketplace, and increase sales of locally produced foods and agricultural products in eleven defined agricultural regions.
...
21. Mayors’ regional plan draws council’s ire - Patterson Irrigator
Stanislaus County’s nine mayors sent a letter to local newspapers last week outlining a regional strategy for land planning that they say will help preserve ag …
But the plan angered some local council members, who said the mayors had overstepped their bounds.
… council members who vocally opposed the mayors plan during the Oct. 4 council meeting continued to voice concerns this week.
Councilman Dominic Farinha said the group’s ideas deserved a look, but he stressed that Patterson had already weighed in on related issues by putting together a new general plan in 2010.
The mayors group was trying to become a policymaking board, which was not its purview, he said.
Councilwoman Annette Smith agreed.
“They are not their own policy board,” she said. “They are not supposed to be creating policy outside of their respective councils. Each city should maintain its autonomy.”
If there were a regional group with such power on planning issues, there would be no reason to have city councils, …
22. Supporting a Regional Patent Office in NM - New Mexico Technology Council
Last year, New Mexico Senators … and Congressmen … urged the Obama administration to open a regional Patent and Trademark Office in central New Mexico and the law streamlining the process for granting patents requires that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office open at least two regional offices to help address the backlog of 680,000 pending patents. One has already been located in Detroit, Michigan and is expected to hire about 100 engineers and patent lawyers.
We encourage our members to consider supporting the effort to locate the remaining office here in Central New Mexico.
The letter from the Senators and Representatives to the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office points to many reasons central New Mexico is an ideal location for a regional office, such as:
A highly-educated workforce, including a high density of patent attorneys and employees with science and engineering Ph.D.’s.
Inexpensive office space
Low cost of living
…
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24. Victoria planning organization faces elimination under federal bill - Victoria Advocate
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The organization responsible for Crossroads transportation policy-making may have dark days ahead.
The Victoria Metropolitan Planning Organization met … to discuss the possible elimination of the organization under program and spending cuts recommended by federal legislation, specifically Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, known as MAP-21.
MAP-21 recommends eliminating all MPOs with populations less than 200,000. There are more than 382 MPOs nationwide, and 230 threatened with elimination.
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Kaminiski describes the MPO as the local planners for any Texas Department of Transportation project.
"If the bill were to be passed as it came out of the committee, the Victoria MPO would no longer exist," Kaminski said. "It's our assumption that those duties would be taken over by TxDOT."
Texas has 25 MPOs; 17 are threatened with elimination under a proposed tier system.
Victoria's operates on a $210,000 annual budget, which comes from state and federal dollars, …
25. Vision Dixie a work in progress - The Spectrum - St. George, Utah
As Washington County grows and develops, it will be up to the residents to make sure the smart growth principles of Vision Dixie are applied … regional planning …
"The thing about Vision Dixie is it depends on citizen participation … It's unrealistic to expect state and local leaders to just stick to those principles forever. The citizens have to be involved."
Vision Dixie, an agreed-upon set of principles devised during a lengthy public process that finished in 2007, was supposed to guide area leaders as they mapped out how Washington County would grow. But regional planning has been pushed to the periphery of many people's minds since the housing market crash and recession stalled the rapid growth that precipitated the … process, …
"A downturn can have some positive effects as well … It gave us some space, some room to breathe, and that gave us some time to plan."
Nearly every community in the county has formally announced it would adhere to Vision Dixie's 10 main principles, …
26. What next, Barents Cooperation? – Barents Observer
In its twentieth year of existence, the Barents Cooperation is standing at a crossroads.
Since 1993, the Barents Cooperation has stimulated relations, built trust and knit bonds of friendship across the borders in the Barents Region. Cross-border cooperation has brought Norway, Russia, Sweden and Finland closer to each other and can be seen as one of the underlying factors, which prepared the ground for the historical delimitation of the Barents Sea.
…
Never before has developments in the Arctic moved with the magnitude and speed of today. Proportionally with ice melting, shipping picks pace and grand industrial activities are put the pipeline. These activities are multilateral in the scope and have implications, which stretch far beyond the borders of the respective states.
The Barents Region is at the threshold of a new era, one of growing big power interest in regional resources, and of industrial expansion and subsequent environmental challenges.
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27. A role for Portia in reigniting the fires of regionalism - Editorial – Jamaica Observer
The year 2012 is likely to see a deepening of the profound multi-dimensional crisis of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the political leadership … to help … people of the Caribbean … hardly anywhere in sight.
… there must be an honest recognition that the crisis exists and needs urgent attention. In this regard, the political leadership of the region has been an abysmal failure because of its unwillingness to tell the people the stark truth.
Second, there must be a realistic and penetrating analysis of the crisis as a prerequisite to formulation of appropriate remedial and transformative policy. The region will not work its way out of the crisis by listening to economic platitudes like the Caribbean Single Market and Economy. Politicians must stop fulminating about the manifestations of the crisis and take meaningful policy actions.
… window of opportunity for … Jamaica to play a substantial role in re-igniting the fires of regionalism … Caribbean people are looking for … leadership
28. Regional multilateralism: The next paradigm in global affairs – Global Public Square Blogs CNN
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Cross-regional cooperation is key to regional multilateralism. The transatlantic dialogue model between the U.S. and Europe can and should be exported. For instance, in the Far East the U.S. and the EU both cooperate with ASEAN. China and Russia have extended their ties through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. … Russia …establishing the Eurasian Union … The Middle East, on the other hand, is in dire need of broader - albeit imaginative - regional integration.
The inability of any one power to confront global challenges will lead responsible powers into the fold of regional multilateralism. The transition will be facilitated if it builds on existing regional integration structures. This way, every state will ultimately become a stakeholder in the international system.
For that to happen, regional leaders need to operate as focal points. They need to listen, persuade and inspire insiders, while coordinating with outsiders. … different from … spheres of influence system. …
29. Asia, Europe and regional cooperation in 2012 - East Asia Forum
As Europe continues its desperate struggle to salvage the euro and monetary union, the spotlight of regional cooperation is shifting to Asia.
… European leaders retro-fitted the union with fiscal disciplines which impose binding limits on national budgets and borrowing. All but Britain opted in; ... not prepared to yield such fiscal sovereignty. Lack of fiscal integration alongside commitment to a common currency was a serious design flaw …
… the European mess has revealed just how inept Europe’s supra-national institutions were in dealing with a regional problem of the proportion that has emerged there. Inter-governmentalism — that is, a willingness to cede position and sovereignty through decision making in the collective interest — moved centre stage as the instrument of crisis management. … despite over half a century of regional institution building, the huge Brussels bureaucracy proved little more than a paper tiger. The implications for Asian regional cooperation are profound.
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30. Angara cites need for regional cooperation to ease disaster risks - The Manila Bulletin
In a bid to minimize the impact of disasters, Senator Edgardo Angara called on the delegates at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) to intensify regional cooperation and coordination in disaster management.
In his speech before the APFF delegates in Tokyo, Angara stressed the importance of regional cooperation in managing disasters such as typhoons and cyclones to further improve the country’s disaster management capabilities considering that an average of 20 storms visit the Philippines every year.
… conference that brings together parliamentarians from Asia-Pacific region to discuss regional politics and security, economy and trade and inter-regional cooperation. …
“Regional cooperation has an important role to play in the initial assessment of cyclones passing through respective areas of responsibility whether the storm makes landfall, as well as the changes in strength and direction caused by storm’s passage through a country, …
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the financial and business hub connecting the region's emerging markets with the developed markets of Europe, Asia and the Americas, hosted "Global Turbulence and MENA Transformations - Political Risk and Investment Trends and Opportunities", a forum in collaboration with the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investments and Export Credits (ICIEC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
…
Political volatility in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as the financial crisis in the Euro zone, have been highlights of the past year.
The forum discussed prospects for regional growth and the impact those events had on investment, particularly on infrastructure projects. The forum also explored effective risk mitigants and the role of development financial institutions in the context of the challenges facing regional markets.
32. Where Is Europe? - NYTimes.com
Where is Europe? You might as well ask: What is Europe? For it is a concept as well as a continent, and the borders of both oscillate wildly. For the ancient Persians, it was that small stepping stone separating them from Greece. In the Middle Ages, it became virtually synonymous with Christendom. A relatively recent and generally unaccepted theory sees Europe spanning half the globe, from Iceland to the Bering Strait, nearly touching Alaska.
Take the most common present-day usage of the term “Europe,” shorthand for (and synonymous with) the European Union. The external borders of this supranational project are well-defined, and in some cases well-defended. But they remain movable, having consistently shifted outward over the last half century. From a core of six founding members in the continent’s west [1], this “Europe” has expanded to comprise 27 states, as far east as Cyprus.
… room between concept and continent, which by some estimates [2] includes as many as 51 countries. …
33. New Term Paradiplomacy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The concept of paradiplomacy refers to the international relations conducted by subnational, regional, local or non-central governments on their own, with a view to promoting their own interests. This feature appears to be an aspect of the overall process of globalisation, under which a number of non-state actors plays an increasingly influential role in the international arena. Regions, federal states, provinces and cities seek their way to promote trade, investments, cooperation and partnership in a long list of subjects and account for a significant part of today’s cross-borders contacts. This trend raises new interesting questions concerning Public International Law and opens a debate on the future of the state system that has provided the grounds for the international political order in the last centuries.
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5000 - Americas
6000 - Pacific Ocean
7000 - Oceana
8000 - Asia
9000 - Indian Ocean
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