During an event held yesterday at the Onassis Cultural Center on Syngrou Avenue, the Onassis Foundation announced the launch of a European architectural competition for the project, dubbed “Re-think Athens.”

Speaking at the event, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos hailed the initiative, saying it will be crucial for improving the standard of living for residents and visitors of the capital.

“We owe this to the citizens of Athens who have seen their quality of life decline month after month, year after year,” Papademos said.

“It will put Athens where it belongs, which is among Europe’s historic cities,” he said of the project, which will be bankrolled with European Union funds.

The “Re-think Athens” project is centered on Panepistimiou Street, one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, connecting Syntagma Square in front of Parliament to the scruffy Omonia Square. Rich in cultural heritage, but also key to the city’s commercial life, Panepistimiou is set to be transformed into a car-free zone with a tram line and bicycle paths.

One of the objectives is to ultimately link two of Greece’s most important cultural institutions, the new Acropolis Museum on the popular Dionysiou Areopagitou promenade, with the National Archaeological Museum in the rundown area off Patission Street.

Hit by the country’s economic malaise, Athens has struggled with soaring crime, prostitution and drug trafficking. Repeated pledges to remedy the situation have failed to deliver.

Moreover, recurring anti-austerity strikes, protests and riots have also damaged the city’s appeal as a tourism destination, with arrivals in Athens in the January-February period showing a 10.7 percent annual decline.

“If we don’t tackle the security problem in the center of Athens, any other effort will be undermined,” Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis said, calling for measures to clamp down on illegal immigration.

The Financial Times Deutschland daily reported on Tuesday that the German group, which has been suffering due to financial difficulties in recent months, will carry out two projects near Larissa, central Greece, with a total output of 500 kilowatts, while two more projects with respective capacities of 530 KW and 830 KW will be constructed on the roofs of two industrial units at Larissa and neighboring Farsala.

Although Q-Cells has not published any specific data regarding the size of the orders, the price of its stocks climbed 7 percent in early trading on Tuesday in Frankfurt.

In a survey of the global competitiveness of cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EUI) declared that if Nairobi maintains its projected growth of 5.2 per cent, it will be one of the 40 fastest-growing cities in the world by 2016.

Nairobi, like other cities in the developing world, lagged behind coming in at the 115th position for overall competitiveness.

However, the city could climb up the ranks in the coming years.

“With concomitant improvement in some other aspects of competitiveness — such as the quality of infrastructure and the regulatory environment — these cities could rise up the Index rankings quickly,” reads part of the report.

The cities surveyed in the research commissioned by Citigroup represent about 29 per cent of the global economy and have a combined GDP of $20.2 trillion.

EUI defined competitiveness as a city’s ability to attract capital, business, talent and visitors.

It measured this by considering 31 categories, including the business and regulatory environment, the quality of human capital and other cultural aspects.

Despite the sombre overall ranking, Nairobi beat some of the world’s largest cities to come in at the 50th position for the quality of human capital.

Johannesburg was 53rd in this category while Tokyo and Beijing trailed in the 56th position.

As firms fight to attract highly-educated and skilled workers, they often choose new cities for growth on the basis of the potential talent pool and living conditions

“We have been working very hard to make the city conducive for big companies and their employees.

Infrastructure projects are making the city more livable and security has also improved,” said Nairobi City Council finance chairman, Mr Michael Oganda.

Sevenseas Technologies will spearhead the project to modernise the power firm’s billing, data centre storage and enterprise resource planning systems.

It will work in partnership with Compsource International, a Zambian IT firm.

According to Zesco managing director Cyprian Chitundu, the upgrade aims at improving the efficiency of business processes within the firm and customer service delivery.

“This development is driven by Zesco’s view to improve its operations through implementation of integrated business information systems,” he said.

SST’s chief operations officer Pius Busera said the company has enough experience and capacity to deliver within the project’s timeframe.

“SST’s has done a similar major systems upgrade for the Kenya Power, and we will ensure execution of this project is within the stipulated time,” he said.

Kenya Power is the equivalent of Zesco in Kenya. The company is charged with the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity in Zambia.

The award comes just days after the Kenyan Technology giant bagged another major data centre design and upgrade deal with United Bank of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.

SST has engaged major expansion gear having already launched its operations in Nigeria, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

Master Builders Geraldton held its first Certificate IV in Project Management. Congratulations to Jen and Maureen for winning the iPods awarded upon successful conclusion of the course!

PPP Funding has now been closed off, so well done to those who took advantage of this funding! If you need funding to access your training, please contact us, and we will route you to any available sources. For eligibility, please send us your CV as well!