The Second World Cities Scientific Development Forum and the First Mayors' Summit on Disaster Risk Reduction Held in Chengdu, China

CHENGDU, China, Aug. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The Second World Cities Scientific Development Forum and the First Mayors' Summit on Disaster Risk Reduction under the theme of "Focusing on Sustainable Development and Cooperation among Cities, Building Livable Cities for Humanity" and co-organized by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), the People's Government of Chengdu Municipality, World Cities Scientific Development Alliance (WCSDA) and Sister Cities International (SCI) was held in Chengdu, China from August 11th to 13th.

Nearly 200 participants from over 30 countries attended the forum, including Mr. Lai Ming, Vice President of The Jiu San (SEPT. 3RD) Society and member of the CPPCC Standing Committee, Mr. Li Shenming, Deputy to the National People's Congress and Vice President of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Mr. Hou Yunchun, Deputy Director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, Mr. Wang Zhongming, Vice Secretary General of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Mr. Shi Yulong, Deputy Director of Academy of Macroeconomic Research of National Development and Reform Commission, Mr. Gitanjana Gunawardena, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Sri Lanka, Ms. Helena Molin-Valdes, Acting Director of UNISDR, Mr. Brad Cole, Board Chair of SCI & Mayor of Carbondale, Mr. Phil Gordon, Mayor of Phoenix, USA, and ambassadors to China, parliamentarians, mayors, experts, scholars, UN officials, as well as Chinese mayors from Chengdu, Luoyang, Dali, Xining, Sanya and Xianyang.

The Evaluation System of World Cities Scientific Development of the forum presented three awards namely the "Ecological City Award", the "Cultural City Award" and the "Tourist City Award". The "Ecological City Award" was presented to Saldanha Bay, Cape Town, South Africa and Dali, Yunnan, China. The "Cultural City Award" was presented to Cincinnati, Ohio, the United States and Luoyang, Henan, China. The "Tourist City Award" was presented to Kuching South, Malaysia and Xining, Qinghai, China.

Mr. Dong Yanzhang, Executive President of WCSDA signed official strategic cooperation frameworks with Ms. Helena Molin-Valdes, Acting Director of UNISDR and Mr. Brad Cole, Board Chair of SCI & Mayor of Carbondale respectively.

Ms. Helena Molin-Valdes delivered a speech on behalf of Ms. Margareta Wahlstrom, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction. She noted, "Chengdu has achieved remarkable results in earthquake relief works and post-disaster reconstruction and accumulated many experiences in disaster prevention and reduction that have a lot to offer other cities. This is the major reason behind the holding of the event in Chengdu. As the first-ever meeting under the framework of 'Making Cities Resilient Campaign', the forum and the summit are bound to exert important influence on the healthy development of the 'Making Cities Resilient Campaign' and the mechanism of the summit. I hope representatives participating in the forum could share experiences and practices of different cities in disaster prevention and reduction through full communications and exchanges so as to enhance the capacity of cities in coping with disasters."

Ge Honglin, deputy secretary of Chengdu Municipal Party Committee and mayor of Chengdu attended the forum and delivered a welcoming speech. He on behalf of the People's Government of Chengdu offered congratulations to the opening of the forum and the summit and extended a warm welcome to participants from both home and abroad. Ge Honglin introduced some explorations that have been made by Chengdu in disaster prevention and reduction. He also said that Chengdu would work harder to press ahead with the development of the "Making Cities Resilient Campaign" and stands ready to join in other cities to build normal information sharing mechanism for disaster prevention and reduction in line with the principle of mutual respect, reciprocity and mutual benefit and keep moving up to a new level in terms of cities scientific development and disaster prevention and reduction.

Dong Ye, Executive Secretary General of the Working Committee of the 2011 WCSDF pointed out, "The forum has five highlights. First, this forum has brought together participants from more countries and cities and the topics of the forum are broader compared with the First WCSDF. Attendees of the forum include parliamentarians, mayors, experts and scholars, and technicians of the UN disaster reduction related institutions. Second, the forum has greatly advanced the activity of 'focusing on disaster prevention and reduction in cities, making cities more resilient and focusing on a sustainable development of world cities'. Third, this forum has successfully built a platform for cooperation and exchanges among cities, promoted credible governments to make commitments jointly and enhance the capacity of cities in disaster response and sustainable development. In fact, this mode merits confirmation and replication. Fourth, at the forum, World Cities Scientific Development Alliance (WCSDA) signed letters of intent for strategic cooperation with United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and Sister Cities International (SCI) respectively, and thus the three have become global official strategic partners for sustainable world cities development. WCSDF will become one of the major platforms for world disaster reduction. Fifth, this forum centered on the theme of 'Focusing on Sustainable Development and Cooperation among Cities, Building Livable Cities for Humanity' and conducted in-depth and fruitful discussions on the four major topics with typical significance. The fruitful results have provided a strong technical support for the mayors' summit. We promise to renew our commitments in this regard."

Apart from natural disasters, more and more man-made disasters are challenging the capacity of world cities. At the Mayors' Summit on Disaster Risk Reduction, a number of cities including Chengdu signed up to the Making Cities Resilient Campaign and discussed and adopted the Chengdu Declaration of Action to implement the "Ten-point checklist of 10 essential of making cities resilient". The declaration pointed out, "We represent different cities, countries and organizations and review, adopt, follow and share the Chengdu Declaration of Action. We regard the declaration as part of the 2010-2012 International Strategy for Disaster Reduction of the UNISDR. We as the organizers of this forum and summit promise to move forward with and coordinate the implementation of the declaration and evaluate the progress at future forums." Experts noted that the Chengdu Declaration of Action will provide the guidance for actual practices of cities in disaster prevention and reduction, boost the establishment and improvement of disaster prevention and reduction system for world cities, and assess and evaluate whether global cities have essential reference for emergency response so as to improve the social credibility of governments.

The resolution of "world cities sustainable development action" that was finally reviewed and adopted at the forum calls on Chinese and foreign participants to build on strong and solid strategic partnership to further deepen the recognition of the importance of disaster prevention and reduction in world cities, firmly center on core issues including strengthening the cooperation of the international community, bilateral and multilateral cooperation and promoting urban economic transformation, and actively explore the road to sustainable development of world cities. Participants are called on to take practical actions to implement the results and resolution of the event and move forward the world cities sustainable development campaign to a new stage. Let's meet at the Third WCSDF with satisfied results and share our best practices and experiences.

SOURCE World Cities Scientific Development Alliance (WCSDA)