A total of 500 representatives from 100 cities from 20 countries participated in the Summit
Dr Pramod Sawant, Chief Minister, Goa inaugurated the 5th South Asian Cities Summit on March 5 at Cidade de Goa, Goa, India. The inaugural session saw participation from Uday Madkaikar, Mayor, Panaji; Hitesh Vaidya, Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA); Dr. Bernadia Irawati, Secretary General, UCLG- ASPAC, Indonesia; Ranjit S Chavan, President, AIILSG; Rajiv Aggarwal, Director General, AIILSG; Jerome Pons, Head of Cooperation, European Union; and Ravi Ranjan Guru, Deputy Director General, AIILSG.
A host of representatives from the European Union, World Bank, Metropolis, ICLEI, and the United Nations participated.
During the inaugural session, the Chief Minister welcomed the delegation from various cities and hoped that the Summit would contribute in the sustainable development of the cities. Talking about the SAC Summit, Sawant said, “Such platforms bring together various stakeholders associated with urban development under one roof to deliberate sustainable practices for city development. Not only the government, but every citizen is responsible for complete implementation of sustainable practices in cities.“
The theme of the conference is ’10 Years to SDGs’. The CM briefed everyone present about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. ”The whole idea is to positively enhance all the aspects of the SDGs in the country for the future and, in this direction, various policies have been devised and implemented by PM Modi in India,” he added.
Ranjit S Chavan said, “I am sure that the participating cities of South Asia must have come with new ideas and strategies to achieve sustainable development goals as per their local needs and conditions. The discussion on different topics including the exchange of information and technology, updated systems and procedures, follow-up and removal of bottlenecks to achieve the target with the speedy process would definitely help each other to attain the final goals by 2030.
The two-day summit has different session covering various thematic topics such as urban mobility, water and sanitation, digital transformation of city management and inclusive cities were discussed.