The
Fourth World Urban Forum which organized by the United
Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) were held in
the city of Nanjing, China from 03rd to 06th
November 2008. More than 5000 foreign delegates from 175
countries including Sri Lanka were participated this Fourth
World Urban Forum with another 3000 local delegates from
Peoples Republic of China.
Minister of
Urban Development and Sacred Area Development, Mr. Dinesh
Gunawardena, Minister of Housing & Common Amenities, Mrs.
Ferial Ashraff and the delegation including officials
represented Sri Lanka in this forum.
Minister of
Housing & Urban Rural Development Mr. Jing Weixin and Vice
Premier of Peoples Republic of China, Mr.Dejiang Zhang the
were inaugurated the world urban forum with the
participation of Prime Minister of Bahrain Mr. Shaikh
KhalifaBin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Kenya Mr.
Raila Odilga, Vice President of Philippine Noli de Castro.
China Vice
Premier welcome the delegates of the Fourth session of the
Urban Forum said that the theme of the Forum “Harmonious
Urbanization” was critically important to the Chinese
government, which attached great importance to integrated
development. They noted that China was focusing on
coordinated development between its cities and regions, and
was placing special emphasis on energy saving and climate
change mitigation.
The Executive
Director of UN Habitat, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka thanked the
government of the People’s Republic of China and the City of
Nanjing for hosting the event and making the Forum a reality
and She further said that this summit is held under the
theme of ‘Harmonious Urbanization’ and the delegates of the
summit will search solutions for urban issues of the world
under the sub themes of regional harmony, economic harmony,
environmental harmony and cultural harmony.
A special report
published by the UNCHS on World Urban Forum - 4 has shown
that Sri Lanka is one of the leading countries involved in
the process of minimizing the urban shanties and temporary
houses. In this publication UNCHS has further pointed out
that Sri Lanka together with Thailand and Tunisia are
successfully involved in this process and the other
countries of the world should get their experience from
these countries.
The
fourth session of the World Urban Forum brings together a
wide range of stakeholders who were focus on various aspects
of harmonious urbanization, including territorial balance in
urban development, social equity, urban environment and
preserving the cultural heritage of cities.
Minister Mr.
Dinesh Gunawardena and Minister Mrs. Ferial Ashraff who
participated the ministerial round table discussion with
more than 100 ministerial representatives from various
countries were discussed various issues faced by the
countries specially on climatic changes in urban areas
At this
discussion Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena said “At a time when $ 700
billion can be found overnight to bailout richest bankers in
the world and $ 1000 billion can be spent on one single
“WAR”, sovereign wealth funds in far rich countries alone
are at $ 2500 billion and growing, it stretches cruelty when
we are told and discussing for years that the world cant
find an extra $ 80 billion a year to meet the basic needs of
food, water, sanitation & housing for the majority of the
world’s population”. He continued to say that “Sri Lanka
views that this should be seriously taken note of at the
World Urban Forum, today, and given the highest
consideration as a priority issue.”
The Nanjing city
was adorned with flyers and posters welcoming Forum visitors
and laser light shows lit up the night skies from high
buildings in the newly modernized city.
For the poor
represented by some civil society groups, for young people
represented by youth groups, or women’s organizations, the
concept carried a message of hope easy to understand in a
world urbanizing so quickly that, according to UN-HABITAT
figures, two-thirds of humanity will be living in towns and
cities in another generation.
Mr. Dinesh
Gunawardena and Mrs. Ferial Ashraff were observed the
working session of World Youth Urban Forum which were held
parallel to main working session which participated 500
youth representatives from UN countries.
Miss Mary Mar,
President of the Inter University Federation of the Peoples
Republic of China affiliated to Inter University Federation
of Asia Pacific who met Minister Mrs. Ferial Ashraff said
that her organization is implementing programmes of exchange
of experiences with many universities of the world and
requested to participate university students of Sri Lanka in
this Programme. Expressing her views Mrs. Ferial Ashraff
said that she would implement a suitable programme in this
regard to make opportunities for youth to include in the Sri
Lankan delegation in future.
The World Urban
Forum -4 were attended by the wide range of partners,
ranging from non-governmental organizations, community-based
organizations, urban professionals and academics, to
governments, local authorities and national and
international association and it has given all these
participants to meet a common platform to discuss urban
issues in formal and informal ways and come up with
action-oriented proposals to create sustainable cities.
The World Urban
Forum – 4 were concluded on 06th November with
the closing ceremony which was attended by more than 500
delegates including all representing countries. On the
request of Government of Brazil that forum was decided to
have the World Urban Forum 05th session on year
2010 at the city of Rio de Janairo, Brazil.
10th
November 2008.
