The 3rd Ljubljana Forum international conference on Managing Water and Transport in the Danube Region took place at Ljubljana castle on 17th and 18th October, 2013.

The event was sponsored by the mayor of the Municipality of Ljubljana, Zoran Jankovič. The programme featured over 50 international and Slovenian speakers from various fields of expertise of urban planning, economy, politics, research, non-government and other organisations, which discussed the topic of the Ljubljana Forum 2013: Managing Water and Transport in the Danube Region.

The speakers and the visitors were given an opportunity to present and exchange their knowledge, experience and their vision of the city in the future, to introduce their actual projects and form new collaborations amongst themselves and potential investors. The Chairman of Ljubljana Forum, Mr Blaž Golob introduced the innovative development model of the city in the future with goals of the Europe 2020 and it emphasises the partnership in actual projects.

The 3rd Ljubljana Forum invited distinguished international experts. Some of them are the internationally renowned architect, Boris Podrecca, the president of ESIMIT Europe, Igor Simčič, the vice president of the European Investment Bank, Laszlo Baranyay, president of the European Council of Spatial Planners, Hendrik van der Kamp, president of the European College of Foresight, Ibon Zugasti, vice president IBM-a Mark Chetwood, the owner of the consultant company Scenarios+Vision, Helene von Reibnitz, European Commission representative, Mark Major, head of planning in the Municipality of Ljubljana, Miran Gajšek, and the European Parliament member, Tanja Fajon and many others.

Many Slovenian private and public companies as well as experts have discussed their achievements and future plans in the field of managing water and transport: Brigita Jamnik from VO-KA public company, the director of the Geological Survey of Slovenia, Marko Komač, the director of the BTC Logistics, Janko Pirkovič and others.

The Round Table of Mayors
The Round Table took place on 17th October 2013 with mayors and deputy mayors of Danube region cities to discuss key problems with cities in managing water and transport, to bring forward city projects and introduce the visions and strategies in water and transport management in the future.
The Round Table guests were Mayor Zoran Janković, mayor of Bratislava, Milan Ftačnik, mayor of Podgorica, Miomir Mugoša, Deputy Mayor of Rijeka, Marko Filipovič and director of Territorital Planning Department of Sofia, Boika Kadreva.

The mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Jankovič, has declared his pride for the Municipal Spatial plan of the Municipality of Ljubljana in 2010 which is the basis for the successful project execution.
He stressed the implementation of the pedestrian zone in the city centre, new bus lines and modernised public transportation vehicles to connect Ljubljana with the neighbouring municipalities, the P+R parking zones that keep the personal vehicles on the outskirts and encourages passengers to use public transportation and the alterations in the one-way street system as well as local population parking zones.
The projects in the waiting line are the train and bus transportation and their integration in the city public transportation as well as the construction of the new central bus and train station.
The mayor has emphasised the situation with the wastewater and the continued development of the sewerage system (currently in the areas of Barje and Polje), the European fun consensus to build doubled capacity of the cleaning devices, storage tank (expected in the next week) and the construction of the Regional Waste Centre for waste management.
He also praised the quality of the potable water in Ljubljana to be better than the bottled water. When inquired about the ideas and projects according to the state standards, he responded with an opinion that smaller cities are often neglected in relation to the capitals as well as the fact the state is not working in the favour of Ljubljana for a while now.

More information on the Ljubljana Forum is available at www.ljubljanaforum.org/2013/index.html.