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The need for affordable and accessible homes take focus on the road to the 6th Asia-Pacific Housing Forum
HONG KONG (July 21, 2017) – National housing issues and priorities take center stage as four countries in the Asia-Pacific region gather housing industry experts for discussions leading up to the 6th Asia-Pacific Housing Forum in September.
Driving the agenda for housing and sustainable development in the region forward, the Asia-Pacific Housing Forum will tackle local housing challenges and solutions in four preliminary events in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; New Delhi, India; Manila, the Philippines; and Jakarta, Indonesia.
These preliminary fora foster national-level conversations and advance the agenda for shelter and sustainable development on the domestic level. The insights coming out of these national events will provide well-tested practices, learnings, and solutions for the discussions at the main forum in Hong Kong.
Participants showing their support for Cambodia’s National Housing Forum, the first of the preliminary events under the 6th Asia-Pacific Housing Forum.
Cambodia, which held its forum on June 27, tackled national housing challenges in the context of the National Housing Policy, launched in 2014. The event also focused on affordable and climate-resilient housing as well as accessible housing finance.
India held its national forum from July 6-7, preceded by a two-day housing finance course through a partnership between the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania and Habitat for Humanity. India’s housing stakeholders also shared on strategic partnerships for scaling housing and sanitation, financing affordable housing, disaster response and preparedness, sustainable urban development, among others. Habitat India announced at the forum the formation of a housing coalition in support of the Indian government’s mission of “Housing for All by 2022.”
The Philippines will hold its national event on July 25-26, guided by the opening plenary theme “Housing: the key to meeting today’s challenges for better health, education, and increased employment opportunities.” Taking place in Manila, the Forum has been appointed as an Urban Thinkers Campus by UN-Habitat.
Indonesia, in partnership with the School of Architecture of Pelita Harapan University, will hold its own on August 30. The one-day conference aims to gather over 70 housing practitioners, academics and students to contribute to solutions to the housing needs in Indonesia.
The United Nations expects that urbanization in Asia will reach 64 percent by 2050, which means hundreds of millions more will be living in cities by then. This outlook puts a lot of pressure on urban spaces and generates an enormous housing demand that cannot be met unless public and private sectors find solutions to integrate housing into their local and national development plans.
Gathering policy-makers, governmental organizations, academics, urban planners, housing sector developers, businesses, international NGOs and others, the Asia-Pacific Housing Forum will be a one-of-a-kind of opportunity for stakeholders to network and discover scalable best practices in housing and sustainable development.
The biennial Asia-Pacific Housing Forum will take place at the JW Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong from September 4-7. Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the new Chief-Executive of Hong Kong, will be the keynote speaker at the opening plenary on September 6. She will be addressing more than 300 delegates on housing in Hong Kong and the challenges.
Other notable speakers and participants at the Housing Forum include Paul Zimmerman, Southern District Councillor; Yili Ma, former director of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau; and Francis Ngai, founder and CEO of Social Ventures Hong Kong.