FORUM TO DISCUSS LIVING CONDITIONS IN ASIAN CITIES BEGINS IN BANGKOK
Press Release
HAB/113
FORUM TO DISCUSS LIVING CONDITIONS IN ASIAN CITIES BEGINS IN BANGKOK
19960311 BANGKOK, 11 March (UN Information Services) -- The Second Asia-Pacific Urban Forum began a one-week session today at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. The focus of its discussions will be a paper entitled "Living in Asian Cities: The Impending Crises", which examines cities from the perspective of the urban poor and middle classes.The gathering of policy makers, representatives from national and city governments, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and research institutions from 36 Asian-Pacific countries will adopt the paper at the end of the week and it will be presented to the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in Istanbul, from 3 to 14 June, as the Asia and Pacific regional input to the Conference.
Opening the Forum today, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Seiko Takahashi, said this region was confronted by "a metamorphosis rarely seen in human history". She was referring to the anticipated "urban transition" by the year 2020, when the population of the Asia-Pacific region is expected to become predominantly urban, against a backdrop of rapid economic growth, the fastest, most massive urban population growth in history, and increasingly severe environmental impacts.
Conventional methods had failed to address the real problems, Ms. Takahashi said. She called for a rediscovery of the cities as "places where people live, work, and anchor their lives" and not only as "economic engines or physical monuments to wealth and development".
The Deputy Secretary-General of HABITAT II, Jorge Wilheim, noted that news about cities was "usually bad news" concerning overcrowding, traffic congestion, unemployment, poverty, crime, violence and homelessness. Those issues, he pointed out, were not only "urban" but "social issues reflecting an unjust society", which were perceived more easily in cities, where concentration made them appear more clearly.
The Regional Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangkok, Michael Heyn, pointed to the fact that growing cities were an expression of people's search for improved economic and social opportunities. In just 30 years, he said, most people in Asia would live in cities. Among UNDP's urban programmes, the Urban Management Programme for
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Asia and the Pacific had created a fund to support creative initiatives from governments and non-governmental organizations around Habitat II, including one with the objective of violence-free cities.
The paper under discussion describes, among other things, a "New urban contract" by which coalitions are built between all legitimate actors in the urban drama thus shifting power from central authority. The unified multi-sectoral approach involves the private sector, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, research and training institutions, media, local authorities and national governments. The paper has been compiled by a group of eminent urban experts from Asia and the Pacific under ESCAP auspices.
The Second Urban Forum is being jointly organized by ESCAP, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and UNDP, in cooperation with the Regional Network of Local Authorities for Management of Human Settlements, the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (Asian Chapter of Habitat International Coalition), and the Regional Network of Human Settlements Research, Training and Information Institutes.
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