3rd Road Map for Urban Policy: Small Town Wins With its Originality

Small and medium-sized cities succeed by identifying their own unique opportunities of megatrends and by implementing their own future – as the guarantee of traditional state-driven regional policy has expired. This is the main point in the 3rd Roadmap for Urban Policy, which was published on 9 May in the City of Riihimäki. Omnivorousness and uniqueness are keys to a small town’s success. Opportunities can be found among others in digitalization, robotization, circular economy and tourism. Conducting and copying mainstream rarely leads to heyday. The good price-quality ratio of housing and living rises to be the small town’s key competitiveness factor. Engaging citizens in the definition of development factors can be revolutionary. Residents can, with their own enthusiasm, help to find solutions and create an atmosphere that makes the place boldly unique. MDI conducted the 3rd Road Map together with The Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT, Finnish Construction Trade Union, The Building Information Foundation RTS, Hypo Bank, The Finnish Association of Consulting Firms SKOL and five cities, namely the cities of Heinola, Järvenpää, Kokkola, Riihimäki / Regional Council of Häme and Uusikaupunki as well as bunch of urbanisation experts.