WGS 2016: International Cooperation in Building Cities of the Future

• Agreement signed amongst key representatives from sister cities
• Leaders must build a future sustainable city that puts people’s welfare at the forefront
• Population growth requires parallel increase on demands on education, energy, employment, and housing

Dubai-UAE: 11 February, 2016 – The population of Dubai is expected to increase to five million by 2030. His Excellency Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, stated that as a consequence of increasing population and depleting natural resources, there is a parallel increase on demand on education, energy, employment, housing and all the other issues.

Mayors and key representatives of sister cities and organizations gathered to sign the ‘Dubai Charter of Sustainable Development Cities Alliance’ seeking to collaboratively achieve the vision of building a sustainable future for Dubai. Participants came together on the final day of the 4th World Government Summit to primarily discuss about sustainable development of future cities in a roundtable session entitled “Shaping Future Cities.”

His Excellency Hussain Nasser Lootah highlighted the challenges that governments face when planning a sustainable city that not only places people’s welfare at the forefront, but also preserves the natural resources. Representatives shared views on the aspect that international conventions and covenants would be essential in building cities that would preserve natural resources and achieve balanced sustainability. The experts concurred that prioritizing welfare of the communities and natural resources is equally important for the benefit of future generations.

Mayors of Ankara, Casablanca, Amman, and Al Maddinah exchanged successful experiences in building sustainable communities that reduce utilization of traditional energy and focus on renewable energy or alternative sources of energy.

Manvita Bardai, Director of International Capital Market Association-India, also added that in order for cities to remain on the correct path of prosperity and sustainability and ensure leaders take the right steps to achieve high standard of quality in cities, data needs to be assembled and shared with global communities.

Whether it be improving the traffic congestion, managing waste, or promoting environmental awareness to communities,  His Excellency Hussain Nasser Lootah added that the current model of cities would not be sufficient to realize future requirements of the community. To prepare for a brighter, sustainable future, he reiterated the importance of developing institutional partnerships and exchanging of information with other countries.

The discussion was attended by H.E. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality; H.E. Musabah Mubarak Al Marar, General Manager of Abu Dhabi Municipality; H.E. Ahmed Al Subaih, Secretary General of Arab Towns Organization; H.E Dr. Bilal Hamad, Mayor of Beirut; H.E. Mr. Melih Gökçek, Mayor of Ankara; H. E. Akel E. Biltaji, Mayor of Amman; Mr. Alain Claude Galliano, Vice President of Metropole de Lyon; H.E. Dr. Khalid Taher, Mayor of Al Maddinah Province; Mr. Gauthier Claude Jacques Dupont, Director of Clean Energy & Sustainability Services; H.E. Dr. Thikra Mohammed Alwash, Mayor of Baghdad; Mr. Abdullah Emadi, Deputy General Manager of Kuwait Municipality; H.E. Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Sultan Al Khalifa, Director General of Al Manama Municipality; H.E. Mr. Mohamed Sadiki, Mayor of the city of Al Rabat and Manvita Baradi, Director of ICMA, India.

The World Government Summit has attracted more than 3,000 personalities from over 125 countries, and 125 speakers in over 70 sessions. The attendees include VIPs and senior experts from the public and private sectors globally, ministers, decision makers, CEOs, innovators, officials, experts, entrepreneurs, academics, and university students. A number of initiatives, reports and studies are set to be launched during the summit and throughout the year. The summit concludes today (February 10) at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai.