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City dwellers make major contribution for development of cities -Minister

"A major contribution to the development of the city is made by the city dwellers. It is also important that the local government institutions, government institutions, non-governmental institutions and private sector organizations involved with the administrative functions of the city should also be associated with learning from "City to City Co-operation," said Minister of Housing Development, P. Harrison at the inauguration of World Habitat Day 2002 conference held under the theme of "City to City Co-operation" at Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall recently.

Minister Harrison further said the experience of one urban centre can be the basis of the development of another city in any part of the world. In a developing country like Sri Lanka, at the initial stages, cities in our own country can commenced the exchange of information useful for each other. From these beginnings, a step forward can be taken to learn from the experience of the developed cities in other countries.

The prime objective of the celebration of the World Habitat Day is to draw the attention of the world to some important aspects of housing and human settlements. In the present context in which an overwhelming trend towards urbanization is evident in all parts of the world celebrating World Habitat Day with "City to City Co-operation" as the theme is very appropriate."

The Mayor of Colombo, Prasanna Gunawardena said the Colombo Municipality is resourceful in terms of manpower, equipment and other wherewithal. It has the most interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary team of experts in the country. They were pivotal in overcoming the tremendous stresses of rapid development in the pre-1994 era of extensive change and restructuring of the city, only to be downgraded, de-systematized and pilfered away under the pressures of the breakdown of the country's administration during the past 8 years.

"Therefore with the UNF government committed to ushering in economic growth and prosperity the imminent task is to maximize the effects of the existing resources to respond to the day to day needs of the population.

There is a need for the Municipal Top Management to review and re-identify their responsibilities, duties and tasks towards a program of highly involved and sustained action to ensure that the city is clean and orderly, and the needs of the population are regularly and fairly attended to," the Mayor said.

Former Director, Asian Office of UNCHS, Disa Weerapana said "A discussion on human settlements in Sri Lanka could not be made without reference to the tremendous contribution to shelter improvement made by late President R. Premadasa during his tenure of office. During the time, Sri Lanka showcased to the world, how a conventional programme of housing laden with unaffordable subsidies, could be transformed into a sustainable program that enables people and communities to meet their own housing needs. Sri Lanka has successfully implemented a people's housing process with the greatest social and political impact on the ground. We stand out as the first nation to translate the principle of ennoblement promoted by the United Nations Campaign on Global Strategy for Shelter into implementable programmes.

In reflecting on the challenges of the future at this observance, our focus should be on continuing these efforts; on building on their achievements and pushing their borders to incorporate emerging new challenges.

Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Plantation Infrastructure, W.D. Ailapperuma said "We live in a rapidly urbanizing world. We do not mean here the rapid population growth and its concentration in cities, now accounting for nearly half of the population on earth. It means also a change in the rhythm of life, and wants, and aspirations of every man and woman irrespective of where he or she lives, that combine to influence the long-term outlook for humanity.

In that real sense, the whole world is urbanized and connected in one way or the other, through a network of mutually dependent relationships. The implications are that we have passed a demographic milestone in history when for the first time more than half the population will be living in cities and not in villages; and reached the threshold of a new urban civilization. In Sri Lanka where rates of urbanization have been historically low, we have not got there just yet. Maybe what the statistics say is only half the truth? Whatever it is, as long as urban life presents more options for livelihood, people will be attracted to the cities." Minister of Western Region Development M.H. Mohomed, Dr. Fredrick Abeyratne, UNDP Office in Sri Lanka, and L.W. Jeerasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Housing Development also spoke at this function.

The Governor of the Western Province, Alavi Mowlana and Members of Parliament, Local Authorities, Municipal Councils and Chairmen of Pradeshiya Sabhas attended this function.

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