Gateshead Council is an international organisation, representing an increasingly international Borough.
Many people around the world know of the amazing successes we have had in developing icons such as the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and The Sage Gateshead – two great examples of Gateshead benefiting from European funding, whilst the Council has also engaged with international partners on a wide variety of issues for many years.
In fact the truth is that today we cannot thrive, develop or succeed if we don't look to the world around us to see the opportunities that exist.
We live in a global age, and the world around us affects us everyday – we are active internationally to make sure we take advantage of that by seizing the opportunity to learn from others, share ideas, find out about different cultures, work to influence decisions taken thousands of miles away…all to benefit Gateshead. Because effective international activity has a positive impact not just on the Council, but also on the people who live in Gateshead, the groups that work here, and the businesses located here.
So our activity is clearly focused, Gateshead International Strategy 2006-2009 is arranged around four key objectives:
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Developing cultural, learning and social partnerships to build more cohesive communities.
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Innovation and learning to improve performance and services.
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Supporting developing economic to meet our equalities aims.
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The economic development of Gateshead and the city region to create more sustainable jobs.
All of our international activity will fit with at least one of these objectives and will be undertaken with partners organisations from a variety of sectors such as environment, culture and business communities. Looking outside Gateshead, international work will be undertaken with partners such as other cities or regions with whom we can work together effectively to improve out borough.