THE World Cities Day 2020 will be celebrated with more than 500 events around the world on October 31, and so the Ministry of Construction, Urban and Housing Development Department and UN-Habitat jointly celebrated the event virtually yesterday afternoon.
During the ceremony, Union Minister U Han Zaw said the ministry has been working together with UN-Habitat for a decade, and it will keep cooperating in the future to promote the urbanization in Myanmar. The ceremony for World Cities Day of 2020 is just a pledge to create fine and sustainable cities.
He also discussed the concerted efforts to be made by cooperating with the civil society organizations and international organizations for the establishment of cities and villages while Myanmar people are struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of cities for the development of urban areas as well as for democracy system, innovation, economy and culture.
In urban life, the people at the grassroots level and the vulnerable community were mainly affected in past years. The theme of World Cities Day is “Reflection on Informal Settlements”, and housings related matters will be discussed for all including the squatters, the Union Minister said.
He also talked about drafting policies for the development of economy and social affairs in respective regions, programmes for proportionate development of urban cities as well as villages, a national urban policy which includes housing sector and highlights illegal squatters and the needs of housings for basic urban people jointly drafted with UN-Habitat, completed housings for the grassroots in Dagon Seikkan Township, public rental housings of government, 2-day workshop to solve the informal settlements in Yangon by cooperating with UHDD in 2019, prioritize sectors in UN Sustainable Development Goals and New Urban Agenda and plans to implement for leaving no one behind.
Then, the World Cities Day 2020 video message of Secretary-General Mr Antonio Guterres was played, and Country Programme Manager Mr Bijay Karmacharya of UN-Habitat Myanmar delivered a welcome message while Country Director Ms Marie Cecile Thirion of French Agency for Development made a remark.
The UN-Habitat Field Programme Manager Mr Vishnu Prasad read the paper under the topic of “Housing for All & the New Urban Agenda,” while Green Lotus Country Director Mr Thibaut Bara about “Informal Settlements in Myanmar: Current dynamics and new strategies,” Senior Researcher Ms Helene Maria Kyed of Danish Institute for International Studies about “Informal Settlements and Migrant Challenges in Yangon,” and Post-Doctoral Fellow Ms Elizabeth Rhoads about “Housing Lessons from the Past: Urban Planning, Evictions and Alternatives in Yangon.”
After that, the attendees to the ceremony coordinated the discussion regarding the papers.
MNA
(Translated by Khine Thazin Han )
