Medellin Mayor Federico Gutiérrez Outlines City’s Development Plan to International Community

In a tradition that dates back to 2004, the mayor of Medellín has invited the international community to hear about its city’s development plan firsthand. The ACI Medellín-hosted event held last week, “Medellin and its International Allies,” featured new Mayor Federico Gutiérrez unveiling his official “Medellin Development Plan 2016 – 2019” in the Himerio Perez Auditorium.

According to Sergio Escobar, executive director of ACI Medellin, Gutiérrez “set out where Medellin is and where we will take it” in an address that served as a “compass for the relationship between Medellin and its international allies for the next four years.”

The event also included panel discussions on the impact of direct foreign investment, sustainability, the Pacific Alliance, and innovation. One was led by Bruce Bagley, director of the Department of International Studies of the University of Miami.

“Thanks to the vote of confidence of its international allies, the city has been able to overcome difficulties, share its achievements and materialize the dreams of its inhabitants,” said ACI Medellín in a statement.

The event hosted 200 people, including the ambassador of South Africa; representatives of the embassies of Japan; Austria and Great Britain; representatives of several UN dependencies; local government representatives from Argentina and Ecuador; the international advisor to the presidency of Bolivia; and the mayor of Fort Lauderdale.

Many institutions also attended the event highlighted by Federico Gutiérrez, such as: CAF, IDB, AECID (Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development), AL-LAs (EuroLatinamerican Alliance for Cooperation between Cities), APC-Colombia (Cooper Presidential Agency), Cemex, Renault SOFASA, Poma Colombia, ProAntioquia, Latin IT Capital, and the Fast Track Institute.