Region Twente - (International) Calendar of Twente

By the year 2020, Twente strives to become an internationally known and reputable knowledge region within a larger cross-border region, belonging to the top European region in the fields of innovation and technology management. That is the mission of the “International Agenda of Twente”. This agenda is a long term strategic framework for the policies towards internationalisation of Twente and is part of the Agenda of Twente. In order to gain a strong international position, Twente needs to orientate itself internationally too.

The “Agenda of Twente” is an ambitious, long term investment plan with the main goal to substantially strengthen the durable social economical structure of Twente. The aim is to create a productive and wealthy region where people can live and work in an enjoyable atmosphere. The fourteen municipalities, united as “Region of Twente”, cooperate closely together with the Overijssel Province in order to do so. This new cooperative agreement is quite unique for the region. Frontline leaders acknowledge the importance of this cooperation and increasingly think out of the box in order to let Twente prevail above their own interests. This change of management of the province of course leads to some resistance every now and then, yet the overall commitment is significant. For the next ten years, the individual municipalities within the “Region of Twente” have collectively agreed to finance projects, worth no less than 80 million Euros. 50 million Euros of this amount is to be used for the “Twente Innovation Route”. The Province of Overijssel has doubled this amount by adding another 50 million Euros.

The programmes of the Agenda of Twente are concreted in several projects. The main purpose of these projects is: building a stronger economy for Twente. One of the projects is the Central Station Twente with the World Trade Center Twente. WTC Twente has for the period of 2008-2011 been granted a subsidy from the Agenda of Twente for the development of the WTC organisation and the execution of different activities.