UN Under-Secretary-General Dr. Anna Tibaijuka: the Mutual Development of Urban Cities through Joint Efforts from All Governments

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UN Under-Secretary-General Dr. Anna Tibaijuka: the Mutual Development of Urban Cities through Joint Efforts from All Governments

   Organized by United Nation Human Settlements Programme, the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development of P.R.C., the Ministry of Public Security of P.R.C., the Ministry of Environmental Protection of P.R.C, the Provincial Government of Jiangsu Province and the Municipal Government of Nanjing City, The 4th World Urban Forum was hosted at Nanjing International Expo Center from November 3rd to 6th, 2008. In the opening ceremony, UN Under-Secretary-General Mr. Sha Zukang announced the oration from the UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon. The significant guests attending the forum included the Prime Minister of Kenya Raila Amolo Odinga, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa, the Vice President of Philippines Castro, the Vice President of Kenya Musalia Mudavadi, UN Under-Secretary-General Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, and many national, regional high officials, mayors and professionals from 175 countries.
   Dr. Anna Tibaijuka made an exciting speech in the opening ceremony as well. She said, it is a very pleasant opportunity to host such major event in an old city of China. Currently, the global environment we are living right now is very different from before. Global warming and environmental problems as well as the financial crisis became a series of challenges for all people on the world. At the same time, urban cities are undergoing a rapid development stage. How will those cities grow themselves with balanced, sustainable and fair development plans? This huge question must rely on the joint efforts from all governments to seek a series of solutions for solving those realistic challenges. She also said, during the 100 year period from 1950 to 2050, great changes happened in many aspects in human lives, such as culture, economy and environment. The urbanization will be significant process in history. More than half of the world population is living in urban areas; therefore, human's future is interlinked with the urban development process.
   The Vice President in the State Council Mr. Zhang Dejiang attended the forum and delivered a speech in the opening ceremony. He pointed out that urbanization is a necessary step in human social development chapter and an important symbol of a country's industrialization and modernization processes. China must apply scientific development methods to help urbanization process so that China can enjoy a peaceful and smooth improvement. Currently, the global financial market is strongly moving, which caused the global economy growth decreased rapidly. All countries suffered in urbanization with great prices. Only through cooperation and communication, we can change the challenges into opportunities and then all countries can actually benefit from the urbanization.
   This forum set a main theme of "Peaceful Urbanization". Under this theme, there were six different subjects, including cities with harmonious relations in society, cities with harmonious relations in economy, cities with harmonious relations in environment, cities with harmonious relations in space, cities with harmonious relations in history and cities with harmonious relations in population.
   The World Urban Forum is organized by United Nation Human Settlements Programme and the highest forum event in global urban development issues. It is known as the first meeting in global human settlements peoblems.
   At the forum, United Nation Human Settlements Programme signed a cooperation memorandum with Kenya. This agreement aims to improve the living quality and income level in Kenya and help Kenya's capital city become a "Worldwide Center" by 2030. The President of Kenya expressed his exciting feelings to the reporters and said, "After coming to China and visiting many increditable improvement projects, I believe Kenya should also manage and correct the polluted environments urgently so that the 2030 goal can be realized on time."
   The World Urban Forum is a perfect place for international communications in many fields. All countries discussed and exchanged their successful cases and solutions dealing with different challenges. This time, the theme is based on harmony, which truly reflects to the focus and desire from the urbanization process. The meeting participants finalized many development strategies that are suitable to the current needs in urbanization. Urbanization is a necessary step in human social development chapter and an important symbol of a country's industrialization and modernization processes. Therefore, many countries sacrificed their natural resource, clean environment and orderly economy to exchange the high growth. The result is now unbalanced development, serious financial crisis and extensive poverty. In order to regain the harmonious relations in human living environment, all countries have to cooperate with each other for a greater and better urbanization in our history.

November 4, 2008, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Anna highly appreciated Home and Abroad News Press’ contributions on promoting the United Nations.