| The consistory is carrying out a pilot experience with socioeconomic agents from Corvera to analyze the situation of the town and study future proposals for improvement | The Murcia City Council is working on the transformation of a new territorial model in which citizen participation is key to structuring the municipality through new technologies.In this way, the City Council held its first virtual agora on Thursday - as a pilot experience - with different socioeconomic agents from the Corvera district, a meeting that was organized by the Department of Urban Agenda and Open Government, led by Mercedes Bernabé and in the who worked in coordination with the departments of Urban Development and Modernization of the Administration and Pedanías y Barrios.The virtual agora is a digital tool for citizen participation that consists of a telematic meeting with residents and associations of neighborhoods and districts, businessmen and socioeconomic agents in the area in order to bring relevant points to the table on specific issues that may affect the general population and in order to find joint solutionsDifferent socio-economic agents from the Corvera district participated in the 1st Virtual Agora: Miguel Ángel Noguera, pedáneo mayor; Miguel Buendía, manager of the Campoder Rural Development Association; Cristina García, member of the Campo de Murcia Merchants Association; Toni García, manager of real estate Pinatar Arena; Javi Martínez, from the El Pocico farm; Antonio Almagro, chronicler of Corvera; Antonio Céspedes, President of Ruralmur; Rosa Alarcón, President of the Campo de Murcia Merchants Association; and Paco de Lara, manager of Finca Torrecillas.The session was divided into two blocks: on the one hand, the identification of the main potentialities and bottlenecks in the hamlet and in the rest of Campo de Murcia; and, on the other, the impact that the Covid-19 is having on the business and economic fabric.By way of conclusions, it was highlighted that Corvera has a variety of environmental, gastronomic, historical and artisanal resources that, together with its geostrategic location between Murcia and Cartagena, make this territory an ideal setting for rural and sector entrepreneurship.
tourist.On the other hand, it is estimated that approximately two-thirds of retail and hospitality establishments have not been able to open their doors due to the current crisis, thus highlighting the need for aid to meet the costs of establishments and current expenditure.Likewise, another of the conclusions drawn from the celebration of the first Virtual Agora was that the situation generated after the health crisis is seen as an opportunity for the Campo de Murcia, since the low density of the existing population allows for much interpersonal space and offer quality outdoor areas for people seeking natural surroundings.
Participation, a key piece for the Urban Agenda Murcia 2030The development of the first 'virtual agora' is part of the development and implementation of the Murcia 2030 Urban Agenda, a strategic planning document that includes all the municipal policies, objectives and lines of action with which the council will work during the next ten years.This line of work is one more step of the initiatives that have been developing from the Department of Urban Agenda and Open Government, where, through the European Programs Service, Murcia is actively participating in the Information Society working group.
of Eurocities and, specifically, in the field of action on Digital Citizenship that leads alongside the city of Genoa (Italy).The digital meeting had a triple purpose as a pilot experience: to make available to these experts the technological tool to celebrate the agora, guarantee territorial representation with the intention of creating shared links between rural and urban areas and general power of social capital in the an area that allows the creation of a collaboration network that facilitates the development process of the district.In the words of Mercedes Bernabé, “the experience lived during this crisis has helped us to rethink new models of social participation, understood not only in the sense of new collaboration tools, but also in the model that we want to promote in our municipality, an open, accessible model and with which we can make available to citizens the appropriate tools so that their opinion can be heard ”."The development of these new tools is, without a doubt, one more step towards the implementation of sustainable urban policies that improve the quality of life of citizens, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), within the framework of the Urban Agenda Murcia 2030 ”, explains Mercedes Bernabé, who adds that“ these instruments are necessary to listen to the opinion of the neighbors and make them participate in the development of their environment ”.Participation, the driving force behind the smart city modelThe development of new tools for citizen participation is also part of the Smart City Strategic Plan, through the MiMurcia project, a smart city model, based on collaboration, citizen service, open government, sustainable mobility, urban quality and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). "This new citizen tool aims to bring Murcians closer and facilitate their participation in public affairs.
For this reason, it is essential to modernize our administrations towards an open channel and a model that is more accessible and adapted to the latest technological advances ”, explains the councilor for Urban Development and Administration Modernization, José Guillén, responsible for facilitating technological means necessary to carry out this pilot experience. In this sense, the mayor recalls that "betting on digital tools, such as virtual agoras, is contributing to the quality of life of our neighbors, thus reaching all neighborhoods and districts and working together on the development of new policies that they improve the daily life of each citizen ”.
The Murcia City Council has had three digital tools for citizen participation since 2017: the portal 'Participate in transparency'; Your Murcia website; and the citizen's mailbox.Participation, an instrument for the union of the territoryThe City Council is committed to citizen participation for the union and structuring of the districts and neighborhoods of the municipality of Murcia.For the councilor of Pedanías y Barrios, Marco Antonio Fernández, also represented in this first digital meeting, “citizens increasingly demand to be involved in the decision-making processes of their territories, with which these tools help facilitate joint proposals that benefit to the total population ”.Likewise, the mayor concludes that the residents, through the Municipal Boards, have a great capacity for decision and direct execution when making investments, improvements and activities in their districts and neighborhoods.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Murcia