During a working lunch presided over by the President of the Basque Government, Juan José Ibarretxe, at the Euskalduna Conference Centre on 21 January 2005, the Bilbao Metropoli-30 Association presented the World Forum of Values for City Development. Prior to this the Basque President had met the Association's Board of Trustees and Board of Directors.

On 19 January 2005, Bilbao Metropoli-30 held its special General Assembly to present the activities that are to be carried out between 2005 and 2015. As well as the ordinary activities of the Association, its Chairman, José Antonio Garrido, explained that their vision for Metropolitan Bilbao for that period was to move from a paradigm of infrastructures to one of values, based on the triangle formed by people, economic activity and the appeal of the city.

José Antonio Garrido argued that, by the end of the previous decade, the development of infrastructures in Metropolitan Bilbao had been consolidated. The projects defined in the Strategic Plan for the Revitalisation of Metropolitan Bilbao transformed the urban environment, significantly improving competitiveness at an entrepreneurial level as well as the quality of life of its inhabitants.

In 1999 Bilbao Metropoli-30 launched its "Strategic Reflection. Bilbao 2010", in which Metropolitan Bilbao was defined as the place where dreams come true. In 2001 the strategic lines deriving from the document received approval, concretised in the shape of far-reaching projects designed to make good use of the changes already brought about in the Metropolis and project Bilbao internationally as a world class city.

With the aim of increasing Bilbao City's Appeal, Bilbao Metropoli-30 has established a calendar of events, including the World Forum of Values for City Development, to be held in Bilbao in 2006, whose purpose is to make visible the strategic values for the development of Metropolitan Bilbao; the European Institute for City Development in 2008; and the training of 150 leaders between 2005 and 2009, which constitutes one more step on the path of the Association's target of identifying and attracting leaders. This will involve the Association organising a Programme for "Executives and Business People Who Wish To Be Just That ", dealing with subjects like company projects, government and management, property and the generation of wealth, shared leadership and strategic reflection.

Once again Bilbao Metropoli-30 contributes its long-term view, underpinned over the coming years by a series of events that make up a significant part of the latest phase of revitalisation which should lead us on to the next objective: optimising the triangle constituted by People, Economic Activity and City Appeal.

World Forum of Values for City Development Presentation Document (Spanish, PDF format, 1.03 Megabytes)