3月26日，在亚洲青年领袖论坛“亚洲的未来”青年领袖交流会上，世界大都市协会秘书长乔尔迪·巴克尔发表了主旨演讲。
全文如下：
各位领导、各位青年领袖：
我代表世界大都市协会向各位致意。世界大都市协会是由全球主要大城市和大都市地区组成的协会。很高兴也很荣幸参加这次青年领袖交流会，与大家共同探讨本次会议的主题“亚洲的未来”。如果我们对亚洲的未来有一点了解的话，那就是亚洲将变得大都市化，城市在未来将变得非常大。
我有幸与世界上一些最大的大都市合作。我们了解到，城市对于年轻一代的奋斗至关重要，无论是应对气候变化的奋斗、争取男女平等的奋斗，还是为所有人提供公平机会的奋斗。城市是最面向未来的政治空间之一。城市总是想在前面，总是以新的方式去开拓。城市也是创新者，是社会变革和技术创新方案发生的地方，使得全世界都从中受益。
我们协会中的大城市在活动中会面时在谈论什么？它们会谈论创新，比如如何将他们的城市变成智慧城市。不同的城市对“智慧”的定义可能非常不同：可能是技术，可能非常简单的解决方案，可能是交通，也可能是如何照顾居民。
亚洲城市在很大程度上正在指明方向。它们之所以能指明方向，是因为它们的规模巨大。世界上最大的城市、世界上最快的城市化正在亚洲发生。亚洲目前是全球化的中心，正如过去丝绸之路或印度洋贸易时期一样。如果不理解亚洲城市在贸易、技术等多方面的全球化所发挥的作用，就无法理解2022年的全球化。
城市也是举世瞩目的大型项目诞生的地方，比如全新的首都、在沙漠中从无到有的新城市、我们身处的新型超级大都市地区。我们现在身处的大湾区是人类历史上最大的城市生活集中地之一。
亚洲城市的多样性也很重要。他们回应着全球城市的需求和挑战，从最简单和最基本的问题到最先进的技术挑战。此外，亚洲城市能够创建自己的模式。过去，城市常常试图模仿欧洲古老的中型城市的模式，而这些模式不符合亚洲的现实情况，或模仿美国无计划扩张的大城市的模式。如今，日本、中国、印度和许多亚洲国家都在创造自己的可持续城市化之路。最后，亚洲城市之所以重要，是因为它们面临的挑战的规模也很大。在亚洲大陆上，一些城市受气候变化、水资源匮乏、空气质量低下以及老龄化的影响最为严重。
亚洲的未来是大都市化。在很大程度上，世界的未来将取决于亚洲的大都市。我们指望亚洲青年在各自的城市里——在各自的大都市里奋斗，建设更加可持续、和平、和谐和平等的未来。这是我留给当今亚洲青年的信息：依靠大都市——依靠全球的大城市——为城市创造更人性化的未来，为人类建设更美好的未来。
谢谢各位。
Jordi Vaquer says the future of Asia is metropolitan
On 26 March, Jordi Vaquer, secretary general of Metropolis, delivered a keynote speech at the Youth Leaders Exchange on “Future of Asia” of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum. Following is the full text of the speech.
Authorities,
Youth leaders,
Greetings from Metropolis, the world association of the large major cities of the world and metropolitan areas. It’s a pleasure and an honor to participate in this youth leaders exchange, a ceremony that celebrates the topic of this meeting, the Future of Asia. And if there is one thing we know about the future of Asia, is that it is going to be metropolitan, that cities will feature very large in this future.
I have the honor to work with some of the world’s largest metropolises, and we have learned that cities are fundamental to the fights of the younger generations, to the fight against climate change, to the fight for equality between women and men, and to the fight to provide fair opportunities for all. Cities are one of the most future-oriented political spaces, always thinking ahead, always pioneering in new ways. They are also innovators – places where social change and technological solutions happen that the whole world benefits from.
What do the big cities of our network talk about when they meet in our events? Well, they talk about things like innovations: how to turn their cities into smart cities. And “smart” can be very different, depending on where you are. It can be about technology; it can be about very simple solutions; it can be about mobility; or it can be about how to take care of people.
Asian cities are showing the way to a large extent. They are showing the way because of their size. The world’s largest cities, the world’s fastest urbanization, is happening in Asia. Asia is now the heart of globalization, as it was in the past during the time of the Silk Road or the Indian Ocean trade. The globalization cannot be understood in 2022 without the role that Asian cities played in it on trade, technology, and many other things.
It’s also the place of new mega projects that the world is fascinated with: the creation of entire new capitals, projects about building new cities out of nothing in the desert, new macro metropolitan regions like the one we are with. We are here in the bay area, one of the largest concentrations of urban life in human history.
Asian cities are also important in their diversity. They run the whole gamut of needs and challenges of the cities of humanity, from the simplest and most basic all the way to the most advanced technological challenges. Asian cities, moreover, are able to create their own model. Too often, cities in the past have been trying to imitate models of old, medium-sized cities of Europe which are not adequate for the Asian realities or of the big sprawled American cities. Nowadays, Japan, China, India, so many Asian nations are creating their own path to sustainable urbanization. And finally, Asian cities are important because of the scale of their challenges. Some of the cities are worst affected by climate change, by water scarcity, by the lack of air quality, by aging in some cases in the continent of Asia.
The future of Asia is metropolitan, and, to a large extent, the future of the world will be decided on Asian metropolises. We count on the young people of Asia to build more sustainable, peaceful, harmonious, and equal future, working in their cities – in their metropolises. This is my message to young Asians today: count on metropolises – count on the large cities of the world – to build a more human future for cities and a better future for humanity.
Thank you very much.
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