Ninth World Urban Forum begins

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ninth World Urban Forum (WUF9) that has gathered about 25,000 people from 194 countries began here today.
The meeting was launched with a flag-raising ceremony that was also witnessed by Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) executive director Datuk Maimunah Mohd Sharif at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).
The 'Jalur Gemilang' Malaysian flag and the United Nations flag were raised at the ceremony.
The seven-day forum until Feb 13 is being held for the second time in Asia with over 500 events, including assemblies, high-level roundtable talks, dialogues and special sessions.
The forum, carrying the theme 'Cities 2030, Cities for All: Implementing the New Urban Agenda', will focus on implementing the new urban agenda.
The biennial WUF is a non-legislative forum convened by the UN-Habitat since 2002 with the aim to study the most pressing issues faced by the world.
Cities which had hosted the forum before include Naples, Rio de Janeiro, Nanjing, Vancouver, Barcelona and Nairobi. — Bernama