Cities are built by people and developed for people. It is important to build innovative, livable, beautiful, sustainable, smart and modern cities.
Modern.az reports that these ideas were expressed by Zhang Guoqing, special representative of Chinese President Xi Jinping, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council of China, at the Leaders' Summit held within the framework of the 13th Session of the World Urban Forum.
On behalf of Chinese President Xi Jinping, he conveyed his best wishes to Azerbaijan for hosting the forum and expressed his confidence that the event would be successful.
According to him, China is currently developing a new human-centered urbanization model.
"If in 2012 the urban population in China was 720 million, in 2025 this figure reached 950 million. China has built the largest urban housing supply system in the world. The per capita housing area of the urban population is more than 40 square meters."
The Chinese representative emphasized that the country continues its activities in the direction of optimizing urban structures, green transformation, protecting cultural heritage and increasing the efficiency of management.
"We are developing a path of urbanization with Chinese characteristics, while protecting the basic principles of urban security."
He also recalled in his speech that the 10th anniversary of the UN's New Urban Agenda will be celebrated this year and voiced four main proposals related to the development of cities.
"The first proposal was to increase attention to the issue of safe and comfortable housing. Safe, comfortable, green and smart homes should be built to meet people's needs for higher quality housing. Urban spaces should be optimized, infrastructure strengthened and the quality of public services increased.
The safety and sustainability of cities were highlighted as the second direction.
Risk management should be integrated into the urban management system, and the public safety system should be strengthened.
The third proposal was related to the application of innovation and technologies. The fourth direction was related to international cooperation and experience exchange.
China is ready to share its experience in the field of urbanization, expand cooperation projects and humanitarian relations between cities."
The Chinese representative reminded that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the UN's New Urban Agenda and stated that China is ready to build a greener and safer future for cities together with all parties.
He also added that cities improve life, and cooperation makes the future more promising.
