|
Editorial
Urban services the
French way - for more sustainable development
Urban services are of vital importance
both to companies and people because they order the smooth running
and evolution of a city. They determine its development potential,
the consistency of its territorial organisation, its ecological
standards and the reality of its social cohesion.
These are the basic components of sustainable development in which the
city, the focal point of a global, systemic approach to problems, has
a key role to play. There will be no sustainable development if cities
do not become more harmonised and innovative, less inegalitarian and
wasteful. And this will not be achieved without more dense and efficient
urban services.
But there are still pressing needs on this score in both Northern and
Southern countries, albeit with considerable disparities in their situations
due to their geographic, and still more, historic environments.
How can these needs be satisfied when most countries are confronted with
a lack of public finance? Pragmatism has blotted out the taboo of ideologies.
Henceforth each country, within a legal framework consistent with its
national traditions, aims to channel private capital into the financing
of facilities, involve private operators in managing them, and better
distribute payment of the service between the user-customer and the taxpayer.
As regards public service concessioning and delegated management, our
country has long been developing original public actions. The competence
of our contractor companies is also remarkable and the major French urban
service groups are world-renowned as leaders in their field.
With this wealth of experience, France can recommend the full range of
its knowhow in all modesty and use it for the benefit of those who are
working for better management of urban development, for a responsible,
more mutually supportive world, and for a more sustainable future.
Georges Cavallier,
ISTED "Cities" Vice President
Contents
- Urban services the French way -
for more sustainable development
- Feature: Urban services and
sustainable development
The inexorable onward march of urban growth is now an
accepted fact. It remains for us to apprehend the city as
the focal point for public action within a national and international
context.
- Infomation Update: News
- Events - Training sessions - Publications
Return to the
last issue
Contact
Anne BARON
Head
of Communication
Departement
La Grande Arche, Paroi Nord
92055 Paris La Défense Cedex
Tél. : 33 (0)1 40 81 24 06
Fax : 33 (0)1 40 81 23 31
Mél. : anne.baron@i-carre.net
|
