FORMER Penang Island City Council (MBPP) mayor Datuk Seri Maimunah Shariff, who is the executive director of UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya, shared her desire of seeing Penang at the international stage with regards to the sustainable development goals.
“We would like to promote the cities in Asia Pacific region to have a holistic and integrated sustainable development.
“I hope that the Asia Pacific will be a model for sustainable development, and with regards to this, I hope Penang will also be the model as my heart is always with Penang.
“There are a lot of innovations in our city here (Penang) which can be shared with other cities. Sometimes, we feel that the things that we do here are too small to share but in reality it might be a big thing to other cities.
“I would like to invite the Chief Minister (Chow Kon Yeow) to the UN-Habitat Assembly, which will be held in Nairobi this May where we will be touching on innovations.
“During the High Level Political Forum in New York every year, one or two cities will go on the stage to report on the implementation of new urban agenda. My dream is to see Penang or any city from Malaysia presenting that,” said Maimunah.
Apart from that, Maimunah also shared her desire to see Malaysia participating in the Climate Change Summit in September.
Maimunah, together with Urbanice Malaysia chief executive officer Norliza Hashim, the deputy executive secretary for Sustainable Development in Bangkok (United Nations ESCAP) Kaveh Zahedi and MBPP mayor Datuk Yew Tung Seang, were having a meeting with the Chief Minister at his office in Komtar today.
Chow said the state government is committed to embracing the international goals with regards to development.
“We are committed to embracing the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) and international goals that suit our local environment. And we are willing to adopt it in the local context,” said Chow.
Yew said the goals of APUF-7 are similar to the ones in the Penang2030 vision.
The seventh Asia Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-7) – “Future of Asia and Pacific Cities: Transformative Pathways to Achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” will be held in Penang from Oct 15 to 17 at the Setia SPICE Convention Centre.
“We want this forum to be an action oriented forum where we can share and find solutions to make the cities in our region more resilient, smart in terms of technology, liveable, inclusive as well as to make future cities,” said Zahedi.
“This is a forum that involves multi-stake holders and that brings together governments at the national and local levels.
“It is also about bringing together businesses, financiers, and of course city dwellers.”
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Alissala Thian