Abstract

The awareness that the competition with emerging Countries can only take place in terms of technology and innovation, and that cities are the fittest place to meet the challenges of the new millennium, certify that in «smart» European cities innovative sectors, such as biotechnology, sustainable mobility, construction compatible with the environment, creative industry and smart grids, will become driving forces for the growth of the most traditional sectors of industry, transforming the urban areas in an accelerator of innovation and an engine of sustainable development. Even Puglia region is particularly leaning towards the model of smart communities through interventions aimed at enhancing the different components of local attractiveness, focusing on the needs of competitive growth of businesses in the new global dimension of the market and aiming at a redevelopment of the area and productive, cultural and local tourist systems, at international level. In view of the new challenges of the 2014-2020 programming period, the Region proposes to the major cities of Puglia some agreements for the implementation of sustainable urban development as a form of agreement between municipalities and regions on a set of shared and participatory interventions aimed at revitalizing the urban context, acting on the infrastructure networks and environmental quality through the integration of socio-economic component and the territorial ones as well as an active (also) private participation. In this sense, the city of Bari has sought to attain a «smart» vision involving all the local stakeholders in the planning and implementation of initiatives in the economic, environmental, social and cultural field. Bari's «smart» approach, in fact, though in line with the strategy of the European and Italian institutions, has a level of newness, since it promotes a governance where all players in the area contribute to the achievement of the strategic objectives set for 2020; simpler partnership models inspired to the idea of agility will enable operational forms of collaboration, today obstructed by too rigid administrative and regulatory structures.