Dubai, 18 March 2006

Dubai's urban development plans have guaranteed best results in continuing the development process and improving quality of urban life as well as striking a harmonious balance between population and land use, said Hussain Nasser Lootah, Acting Director General of Dubai Municipality.

He was addressing the opening session of the 3-day Dubai Forum for Sustainable Urban Development (DSUD) which began Saturday at Grant Hyatt, Dubai.

Lootah noted that the concept of sustainable development does not define the relation of development with natural environment alone, but it also transcends to the relation of development with social, economic and population aspects as well. On the basis of this, the United Nations has adopted a wider definition of sustainable development which reads as: "the development that meets needs of the present generation without affecting the opportunities of the future generations in meeting their needs."

He added: "Dubai Municipality has organised this forum to discuss redevelopment of the central business district as one of the crucial sustainable urban development issues. Restoration of its architectural and social characteristic is very important in order to keep pace with the city's fast urban development and its busy economic activities, especially as they are a destination of businessmen, traders and shoppers alike from both inside the country and abroad. Restoring CBDs has become a source of concern for many of the cities worldwide and it has been discussed in detail in planning researches and studies."

To achieve sustainable development, Lootah noted, Dubai has introduced several strategic plans with regard to urban planning and heritage conservation such as the Comprehensive Development Plan 1985-2000, the Strategic Urban Growth Plan for the Emirate of Dubai (2000-2050), Structural Plan for Dubai Urban Area (2000-2020), First Five Year Plan for Dubai Urban Area (2000-2005), and several other legislation on land use in Dubai.

"These plans and laws have guaranteed the best results in continuing the development process and improving quality of urban life as well as striking a harmonious balance between population and land use," he said.

Also addressing the opening session, Abdullah AbdulRahim, Director of Planning and Survey Department and Head of the Conference Organising Committee, said due to the socio-economic developments of the emirate, Dubai's central business district witnessed several changes.

"These were the areas where many of us, as young children, spent hour childhood and grew up. Due to the high growth of the city, many high-income residents left these areas for city suburbs. They were initially replaced by a middle-income population and as time passed, the social structure and economic and living conditions of these areas have changed. Unless much care has been given to these areas, their socio-cultural characteristics would change for worse, and we can't intervene at a later stage. So, this is the time to plan for the CBDs," he said.

AbdulRahim noted that the DSUD would discuss over the next three days the significance of preserving the social, economic, cultural and urban characteristics of the CBDs.

John Alexander Smith, Professor and Programme Chairman, Department of Interior Design at the American University of Dubai, which co-organises the event along with Dubai Municipality, said tomorrow's Dubai today is the result of a carefully devised and strategically planned economy where tourism, construction, banking, commerce and trading act as levers for progress that is no longer measured by the oil barrel.

"Instead, Dubai focuses on the contribution made by the tourist and a new era of residents who have chosen to commit much of their working lives and capital to a relatively small corner of the globe. In this sense, the world has come to Dubai and such a notion can also be regarded appropriate if we consider the role of architecture and planning in recent years," Smith said.

Lootah, accompanied by other officials and prominent personalities, later opened an exhibition on sustainable development, which showcases best practices in the development of CBDs by the five participating countries that are : China, Australia, USA, Italy and Syria. Apart from the conference organisers, Dubai Property Group, Emaar, Dubai Investments, Abdullah & AbdulWahid Al Rostamani Group, Dubai Sports City, Dubai & Technology and Media Free Zone, Zayed University, and Dubai Silicon Oasis have also put up pavilions in the exhibition.

During first day of the conference, six sessions were held in which six papers from as many countries were presented. They included "Al Azhar Park Rehabilitation of Historical Downtown District of Cairo" by Dr. Maher Stino, Professor or Urban Design & Landscape Architecture and United Nations Town Planning Expert, Egypt, "Environmentally and culturally sustainable cities for the 21st century" by Prof. Stephen Hamnett, Professor of Urban & Regional Planning, University of South Australia, "The success and failures of the Toronto approach to planning for the CBD and surrounding areas from 1975 to 2005" by Dr. Mary Neumann, Principal, Mary Neumann & Associates, Canada, "A roof into a garden" by David Mangin, SEURA, Paris, France, "Strategies and Sustainability Considerations in Urban Design and Planning - A Malaysian Case Study" by Prof. Kun Lim, former master planner of Federal City of Putrajayah and director of the Kuala Lumpur Monorail Project, Malayaisa, and "Glasgow: A post industrial success?" by Dr. Andrew MacMillan, Emeritus Professor of Architecture at University of Glasgow.

These papers will be analysed over the next two days through round-table discussion and interaction between the experts and participants from different areas of interest and expertise. The round-table discussions will be facilitated by a specialist who will pose questions to the experts and will field questions from conference delegates.

Besides, five teams of students from reputed local, regional and international universities will present their planning projects concerning CBDs in a competition to be judged by the invited experts.

-Ends-

© Press Release 2006