In the light of the upcoming World Metropolis Congress(WMC) to be held in the city, a four member delegation from General Secretariat of Metropolis, Presidency of Metropolis (Paris Region), held a review on the preparedness of Metropolis World Congress. The event is scheduled to be held in Hyderabad from October 6 to 10 next year. It is a prestigious international conference in which about 2,000 delegates from as many as 125 metropolitan cities around the world will be participating in the conference.
The review team consisted of Sunil Dubey, Director for India, Sydney, Metropolis, Agnes Bickart, Barcelona, Manager International Relations, Metropolis, Teresa Oliver, Barcelona, International Media and Campaign Officer, Metropolis and Marie Christine Bourgeois, Paris, Adviser to the President of Metropolis. They met MAUD Principal Secretaries, SK Joshi, and Adhar Sinha along with GHMC Commissioner MT Krishna Babu at Secretariat on Monday.
Joshi said that it will be a great opportunity for the city to project itself as an international city as delegates, mayors and government representatives from New York, Tokyo, Seoul and other major cities will be visiting Hyderabad during the Metropolis Conference. He further added that the main aim of the meeting is to discuss the projects to be taken up, innovations to be presented and exchange of views and all the arrangements to be taken up for the Conference including venue,technical subjects among other areas.
In a later event,the delegates along with the Commissioner met GHMC Mayor, M Majid Hussain. They interacted with the delegation and exchanged views for the forthcoming event.
Mayor M Majid Hussain said that it will be a great honour and privilege for GHMC that such a big International and first Congress event is being held in Asia and that too in Hyderabad. ‘’As a Mayor of Hyderabad I feel proud that after COP-11 it will be the second big event which is going to take place in the month of October, 2014’’, he said. The mayor assured the delegation that GHMC will take care of any help that is required from their side. He directed the GHMC officials to coordinate with the delegation and put up the proposals to the Standing Committee to take up the developmental works for the success of the event.
GHMC Commissioner said that the event will be organised jointly by the Metropolis, Central and State Governments and GHMC. The International level of publicity for the conference will be taken care of by the Metropolis. The publicity for the national level events will be handled by the State and Central Governments.
The Commissioner informed that “Cities for All” is the main theme of the meeting from India’s side. The elected democratic governments will be discussing the subjects about the transportation, housing requirements, slum improvement, smart cities development and different schemes at national and state level workshops will also be conducted, he added. The Metropolis is a world association of major cities (with a population greater than 1 million). The secretariat is located at Barcelona in Spain. The establishment organises the WMC triennially with a view to bring the best urban leaders, administrators , city managers, practitioners, organisations and citizen representatives on a single platform. The congress is likely to promote the brand image of Greater Hyderabad and facilitate exchange of cultural tourism. The previous edition of the WMC was held in Porte Alegre, Brazil in 2011.