Objective:

The forum provided a meaningful platform for city mayors, top government officials, decision makers and experts to present and discuss the key issues related to sustainable urban infrastructure development in Asia and the Pacific, and find innovative ways to make infrastructure more inclusive and sustainable and our cities more livable and competitive.

The meeting represented also an opportunity for ESCAP to present two projects that aim at assisting cities in Asia-Pacific in increasing the environmental sustainability of infrastructure development and receive feedback on priority areas that could be addressed.

Outcome:

Experiences in the region showed that many good practices exist, but there is room for a more systematic integration of environmental and social issues into policies, programmes and projects, especially for the application of eco-efficiency criteria to urban infrastructure development. Therefore, cities expressed interest in adopting a more integrated and holistic approach related to infrastructure development and for interventions that could enable attracting co-financing for sustainable infrastructure development. In this connection, they welcomed the projects developed by ESCAP, which would aim at building capacities for identifying more eco-efficient infrastructure development solutions, as well as co-financing opportunities.