By NNN-IRNA,
Tehran : The three-day Asia-Pacific Ministers Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) wrapped up its activities Wednesday, issuing Tehran Declaration.
The ministers said their gathering was aimed at addressing the challenges faced by region’s nations for achieving sustainable rural development, mass produce appropriate houses rapidly, fight against social injustice and deprivation, and safeguard regional nations religious, cultural and historic identities.
The role played by metropolitan cities and other vast residential areas of the mankind in rural development of the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the problems they have caused in the process of logical and sustainable development due to the huge populations that reside in them, particularly in decades to come, have been recognized in the declaration.
The uniqueness of the region as one of the cradles of civilization, its rich metropolitan history and tradition in urban planning and architecture, its strategic and growing economic role, and its vast technical and intellectual resources and expertise, all of which should be mobilized to address the challenges of sustainable urbanization are praised, recognized, and noted in the document.
The Asia-Pacific ministers have further acknowledged the need for increasing regional cooperation, exchange of information and national experiences, dissemination of best practices best practices, and for developing joint activities and programs for implementing an Action Plan annexed to their Declaration.
The APMCHUD has in Tehran Declaration invited the Asia-Pacific nations’ leaders to attend the “forthcoming high level segment of COSAC” to adopt, as a standing item of the annual ministerial review (AMR) the cross-cutting issue of sustainable urbanization.
The Indonesian Government’s proposal to host the nest Asia-Pacific ministers Conference of Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD) in the year 2010 is welcomed and that government’s poverty alleviation efforts are praised at the end of the declaration, in which the Islamic Republic of Iran’s prestigious hosting of the 3nd conference is sincerely appreciated.