More Participants To Sign Up For WUF9 In Kuala Lumpur

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 15 (Bernama) -- The number of participants to the world-class meeting on urban issues, World Urban Forum 9 (WUF9), in Kuala Lumpur next month will exceed the 25,000 targeted earlier. Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry secretary-general Mohammad Mentek said to date, a total of 18,000 participants from all over the world had registered online to secure their places in the WUF9 to be held from Feb 7 to 13. "The number of participants in WUF9 maybe higher than the earlier expectation as Malaysia receives strong support from the ASEAN countries," he told a media briefing on WUF9 at the ministry here Monday. Mohammad said a total of 500 programmes including assemblies, high-level roundtables, dialogues, special sessions and stakeholders roundtables had been listed throughout the seven-day forum, which would be the second time being held in Asia. Among the highlights of WUF9 would be the gala dinner featuring Malaysian style feast concept known as 'Kenduri in the Park' at Perdana Botanical Garden Kuala Lumpur. Themed Cities 2030, Cities for All, the WUF9 hosted by Kuala Lumpur will focus on implementing the new urban agenda. Mohammad said WUF9 would be hosted by the Malaysian government with the participation of various ministries under the National Blue Ocean Strategy. WUF is a non legislative forum convened by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) since 2002. It is hosted in a different city every two years, to examine the most pressing issues facing the world today. Prior to Kuala Lumpur, other world cities that have hosted WUF included Naples, Rio de Janeiro, Nanjing, Vancouver, Barcelona and Nairobi. -- BERNAMA