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The capital of the State of Nuevo León has already begun working on the preparations for the next edition of the Universal Forum of Cultures.
The event will promote encounters between Amerindian and Anglo-Saxon culture.
Forum Monterrey will be carried out according to the UN’s eight millennium development goals for 2015: eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of infant mortality; improvement of maternal health; fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other illnesses; ensuring environmental sustainability and supporting a world-wide association for development.
The government of Nuevo León has set up citizen councils (consejos ciudadanos) to ensure citizen participation in the various phases of Forum Monterrey 2007. Along these lines, there are plans to create "La Juventud: motor del Forum", an university student organization comprised of some 3,000 young adults, who will become the hosts and guides during Forum 2007.
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Over the 90 days Monterrey 2007 last, some 12 to 15 international congresses; roughly 8 to 10 international music, film, TV and performance events; and 8 to 10 exhibitions will be held. There will be a large number of foreign speakers and exhibitors—the aim is 90%. The official languages of the Universal Forum of Cultures 2007 will be Spanish, French, English, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese.
One of the declarations made by the governor of Nuevo León during the official presentation of Forum 2007 to civil society in Monterrey was: "Our state no longer conceives of economic growth without also including cultural aspects."
Some of the concepts Forum Monterrey 2007 will focus on are: the age of knowledge and peace, the industrial revolution and ecology, progress and fair distribution of knowledge, technological sub-development, cloning and human dignity, etc.
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Forum Monterrey 2007 will be run by the government of the state of Nuevo León, of which the current governor is José Natividad González Parás, president of the organizing committee. The seven cities that make up the municipalities of the metropolitan area of Monterrey have also got involved in the organization of Forum 2007.
The first phase will consist of setting up a Technical Office that will work on operational and conceptual structure of the Monterrey 2007 project. The second phase will be to set up an organizing committee, the president of which will be the governor of the state and the vice-president of which will be the municipal president of the city of Monterrey. The organization members will include: representatives of the federal government and state authorities, members of private initiatives, prominent intellectuals from Nuevo Leon, leaders of all state political, directors of NGOs and chairmen of universities and higher studies institutions.
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"We in Monterrey are ready to go". That is how the promotional video of Forum Monterrey 2007 ends. The capital of Nuevo León has already got to work on the 2007 edition of the Forum. The Universal Forum of Cultures and Knowledge, will address of Forum’s Agenda of Principles and Values for 90 days—from September to November 2007. The governor of the State of Nuevo León, Natividad González Parás, explained yesterday that the Unesco was sympathetic to and understanding of the changes that Monterrey proposed in order to adapt the characteristics of the Forum to this Mexican city. Hence, the second edition of this international event, said the governor, "will reduce the duration from five to three months and will take a thematic approach to culture, with a primary chapter on knowledge".
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The mayor of monterrey hopes to repeat in 2007 the successes of the Barcelona Forum