Urban Forum: Country needs managed urbanisation: minister

Urban Unit, Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Govt sign MoU

LAHORE:

The Urban Unit Punjab signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) as the Pakistan Urban Forum concluded on Tuesday.

The third edition of forum ended after five days of discussions, plenary sessions, roundtables, guest lectures, technical sessions, exhibitions and a debate on the theme of Reimagining Pakistan’s Cities in the 21st Century.

Minister for Housing Malik Tanveer Aslam Awan chaired the concluding session on behalf of the chief minister.



Awan thanked the delegates for making the forum a huge success. “Urbanisation is a global phenomenon. Our country needs planned and managed urbanisation, else it will end up in disaster. We need future cities to be livable, clean, green, smart, economically vibrant and happy. Urban agenda in the Punjab is clear and progressive. We are collaborating with various countries for improvement in our cities’ infrastructures,” he said.

ACELG Deputy Director Melissa Gibbs said: “The forum has been an excellent opportunity to share the best practices and experiences that will surely go a long way in improving infrastructure of cities in Pakistan. Such platforms are integral if Third World countries are eager to learn and improve their governance models.”

Urban Unit CEO Dr Nasir Javed presented the Pakistan Urban Declaration at the closing session. “Let us make our cities the engines of growth – let us transform these into the ones we dream of. We need to build institutional capacity to reach the maximum dividends from the urban process in the light of vision 2025. Further, aligned and integrated institutions are a must to create synergies along with improving the capacities of our human resource.”

Javed said that the 4th Pakistan Urban Forum would be held in Peshawar in February, 2017. He thanked all participating universities, government departments, NGOs, donor agencies, media and civil society members.

A roundtable on Media’s Role in Highlighting Urban Issues was held on the last day of the forum. Professor Mujahid Mansoori from Beaconhouse National University and journalist Wasif Nagi led the discussion. Representatives from several newspapers and TV channels, students, representatives and members of the civil society and non-government organisations (NGOs) also participated in the debate. They stated that media was the bridge between the society and the government. “All stakeholders must facilitate the media in order to enable it to serve as the fourth pillar of state. The role of media in bringing to light urbanisation challenges is extremely important,” they said.

The third Pakistan Urban Forum was the largest of its kind. Thirty-nine international speakers, 149 speakers from within the country and more than 8,000 registered participants attended the 36 sessions over five days.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th,  2015.