Malaysia To Host World Urban Forum In 2018

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), Nov 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will host the 9th World Urban Forum (WUF), a global gathering for urbanists, in February 2018. Urban Wellbeing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar said the six-day forum, which is expected to commence on Feb 7, will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC). He said the forum, organised biennially by UN-Habitat is expected to be attended by over 25,000 participants from around the world and serve as the best platform to promote Malaysia, particularly Kuala Lumpur as a developing modern city. The biding process (to host WUF) started in 2014 and after six months going through the process, Malaysia were announced as the host of the ninth WUF, beating 10 other vying countries, he told reporters here Monday. Earlier, Noh received a courtesy call from UN-Habitat Chief of Advocacy and Communications, Ana Moreno, to go through the details before signing the final agreement for Malaysia as the host. Noh said he was informed by Moreno that the UN-Habitat was satisfied and happy with the facilities available in Kuala Lumpur, including public transport, hotels and expressed her confidence that Malaysia will be the best organiser for the biennial forum. Asked on other advantages to host WUF beyond attracting tourists, he said the forum was to discuss various matters related to urbanisation planning in Kuala Lumpur which may be selected as an example of modern urban development. Meanwhile, Moreno said there are several reasons why Kuala Lumpur was selected, like the vision of how the city has been developed because urban development planning was not an easy task. She said since 2002, China was the only country in Asia to host WUF and in the context of Asian, UN-Habitat was very keen to ensure that the forum was being held in a city that was leading the charge in Asia. Kuala Lumpur's capacity to organise the mega event and the KLCC itself is the main reason behind the selection, besides what the city can offer in terms of citizen engagement, she added. Moreno also noted that the main goal of the forum was to advocate and raise awareness on sustainable urban development and sharing the collective knowledge, inclusive on sustainable urbanisation through open debates and exchange of experiences and best practices. --BERNAMA