KUCHING: Kuching will be playing host to the 8th Alliance For Healthy Cities (AFHC) Global Conference and General Assembly 2018 which will be held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here from this 17 till 20 October. The event is expected to attract about 700 participants locally and internationally and they include 80 mayors and officials from the AFHC member cities, experts in urban planning, public health, city management and environment.
The international participants are from the member cities of the AFHC, universities and international organisations, including World Health Organisation (WHO). Besides mayors and officials from cities around the Western Pacific Region, the event will be attended by Dr. Shin Young-soo, the WHO Regional Director of Western Pacific Region as well as the WHO Director of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore Dr. Lo Ying Ru.
Kuching City is one of the founding members of AFHC and it was voted by the Steering Committee of the AFHC to host the 8th AFHC Global Conference and General Assembly. This is the second time Kuching City chosen to host this prestigious event.
It hosted the inaugural AFHC General Assembly in 2004. “We are looking forward to this and I hope with this conference we will be able to showcase again Kuching City as a healthy city of which we had been selected by WHO as an outstanding healthy city in 2004.
“This conference will again showcase our achievement and what we have done so far, and we want to use this event as a platform to promote Kuching as a Healthy City, a City of Unity and as tourism destination, ” said State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani at a press conference at the State Legislative Assembly Building, Petra Jaya here yesterday.
Morshidi said the conference‘s theme is “Our Cities, Our Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Our Journey” which is chosen to reflect the needs to align the Healthy Cities movement with the Sustainable Development Goals. The event is organised by the State Government with support from the WHO and the Secretariat of the Alliance for Healthy Cities in Japan. The conference, Morshidi said, is divided into four major events namely the Plenary Session, Parallel Session, Exhibition and On-site Workshop Visit. The Plenary Session will include 10 papers from the experts in the area of Healthy City, SDGs and urban development.
The plenary speakers are Dr Trevor Hancock, Professor and Senior Scholar, School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria, Canada; Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi Bin Abdul Ghani, State Secretary of Sarawak; Ms Uta Christine Dietrich, Think City, Malaysia; and Professor Dr Keiko Nakamura, Head of the Secretariat of the Alliance For Healthy Cities (AFHC) and Urban Policy Research, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
Other plenary speakers are Ms Alana Margaret Officer, Centre for Health Development, WHO; Prof Albert Lee, JC School of Public Health and Primary Health Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Prof Cordia Chu, Nathan Campus Griffith University , Australia; Prof Richard Osborne, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia; Dr Nobuo Nishi, National Institute of Health and Nutrition Japan; and Professor Datu Dr Andrew Kiyu, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Sarawak Healthy City Honorary Advisor.
The Parallel Session comprises 48 papers from presenters representing various member cities and universities in AFHC including the Republic of Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia as well as local presenters, covering relevant themes of the SDGs. The Poster Exhibition comprises 182 posters from member cities of the AFHC. The posters display the programme, projects and initiatives undertaken by various cities towards enhancing the quality of life of their citizen and their alignment towards SDGs. The Exhibition also includes the physical exhibition by the relevant State agencies and private sector.
The exhibition will display the initiatives, projects and programmes undertaken by the agencies which have implications towards betterment of the quality of the citizens and improvement of urban environment. The participating agencies include four Local Authorities (DBKU, MBKS, MPP and MPKS) and other 17 government agencies as well as nine private sectors.
The On-Site Workshop and Visit is the new activity planned by the Secretariat to add value to the Technical Visit that are normally held on the last day and four venues selected for the site visit are Kuching Friendship park, Stutong Community Market, India Street Pedestrian area and Sarawak Cultural Village.
Concurrent events to be held are the Mayors Forum which will see the participation of Mayors from cities around the Western Pacific Region in the Mayors Forum that will be organised concurrently on 17 Oct; the General Assembly which is the gathering of all the Mayors, Officials and representatives of the AFHC member cities on 18th Oct; the Steering Committee of the Alliance For Healthy Cities that will be held on 16 Oct and 18 Oct respectively; the Presentation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Recognition Awards to the cities that have been excellent in their efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; the presentation of the Alliance For Healthy Cities Awards which will be presented to cities that have been excellent in their pursuit for a better quality of life through the Healthy City Concept.
The presentation of the awards is scheduled on 17 Oct at BCCK. Morshidi said the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg will grace the official opening ceremony on 17 Oct at 10.30am and closing ceremony will be done by Datuk Professor Dr Sim Kui Hian, Minister of Local Government and Housing on Oct 19 at 3pm.
