New Delhi: Ministers and experts from BRICS countries will discuss urban transition and the attendant challenges in the member countries over three days from Wednesday this week in the emerging smart city of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation will inaugurate the three day conference on ‘Urban Transition in BRICS’ on September 14,2016 which seeks to promote cooperation among member countries in urban sector.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Shri N.Chandrababu Naidu, Ministers from other BRICS nations besides a large number of urban planners, experts, members of academia etc will attend the conference.
The conference will discuss and evolve a common agenda for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) countries to be presented at the HABITAT-III Conference to be held in Quito, Eucador. Other issues to be discussed are ; development of smart cities, financing urban infrastructure, inclusive housing, Climate change, regional planning, water and sanitation management and new reforms for urban renaissance.
The Visakhapatnam Conference is being organized as a part of the Government’s efforts to take cooperation among BRICS group on various issues to the people for which several such meetings are being organized across the country.
India currently holds the chairmanship of BRICS and has chosen ‘Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions’ as the theme for this year and the BRICS Summit will be held in Goa in October this year.
In his message to the Conference, Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said “The underlying rationale of cooperation on urbanization between BRICS countries is to share urban knowledge, develop mechanisms for peer to peer exchange, promote evidence based policy making and learn useful lessons from individual experience of urban transition”.
BRICS nations account for over 3 billon population constituting 53.40% of world’s population, 23.10% of global GDP and 26.70% of world’s geographical area, spread over four continents.
Range of urbanization varies from 84% in Brazil, 73% in Russia, 64% in South Africa, 57% in China and 32% in India.
