Urban Land Institute's World Cities Forum
Cities can create a competitive advantage. The second World Cities Forum in Shanghai examined how emerging-market cities can achieve it.
Participants at the second World Cities Forum, held 17–19 April in Shanghai, wrestled with how emerging-market cities can achieve competitive advantage. They examined quality of life, opportunity and prosperity, distinctive identity, and the public realm through the lens of global capital markets, sustainability, infrastructure, places of commerce, and civic leadership.
Building on themes from the inaugural WCF held in London, the Shanghai gathering used the host city as a learning laboratory to better understand emerging markets worldwide. About 145 people from 14 countries came together to see firsthand some of the most ambitious and innovative development projects in the region. East met West when participants from public and private sectors compared notes about urban regeneration and planning strategies.
The forum was structured around the relationship between world cities and global capital markets; the importance of energy and the environment as both challenge and opportunity; the role of infrastructure as an asset class and a tool for shaping cities and their regions; the relationships among urban form, economic development, and quality of life; and the requirements for vision and leadership.
Participants grappled with the tension between economic growth and climate change — examining the fears that the rising populations of emerging-market countries, and their desire for a Western lifestyle, will continue to foster global warming.