Call to make cities engines of growth

LAHORE

The third Pakistan urban forum concluded on Tuesday amidst hopes for international collaboration on urban development projects/urbanisation. The third edition of the forum concluded after its five-day long consecutive discussions, plenary sessions, roundtables, guest lectures, technical sessions, urban exhibition and urban debates on the theme of ‘Reimagining Pakistan’s Cities in the 21st Century’.

Housing Minister Tanveer Aslam attended the closing session as a chief guest of the last day of the forum. According to a press release, the third Pakistan urban forum has been the biggest of its kind till date in Pakistan with some 39 international speakers, 147 national speakers, more than 8,000 registered participants, 35 sessions and 54 display stalls of various companies and departments from all over the country in last five days . Urban Unit CEO Dr Nasir Javed presented the Pakistan Urban declaration while speaking at the closing ceremony.

“Let’s make our cities the engines of growth. Let’s 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,” he added. 

Ms Melissa Gibbs, Deputy Director of Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Governance: “The forum has been an excellent opportunity to share the best practices and experiences that will surely go a long way in improving the cities’ infrastructures in Pakistan. Such platforms are integral if third world countries are eager to learn and improve the governance models.” Punjab Housing Minister Tanveer Aslam addressed the closing ceremony on the behalf of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. He thanked all the international and national delegates for making the forum a huge success. “Urbanisation is a global phenomenon and Pakistan is no exception. We need planned and manage urbanisation else we end up in disaster. We need future cities to be livable, clean, green, smart, economically vibrant and happy. Urban agenda in Punjab is clear headed and quite progressive as we are collaborating with various countries for improvement in our cities’ infrastructures,” the minister said. The roundtable on ’Media’s role in highlighting the urban issues’ became the highlight of fifth day of the forum with Dr Mujahid Mansoori, Professor Beacon House National University and Wasif Nagi, leading columnist led the roundtable while representatives from mainstream newspapers and channels actively participated in it. Students, NGOs’ representatives and members of the civil society attended the debate concluding that media is the much needed bridge between society and governments and it must be facilitated by all corners in order to enable it to serve as the fourth pillar of state.