Suwon to Host 2019 Asia Human City Suwon Forum on October 2

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon City will host the "2019 Asia Human City Suwon Forum" at the Suwon Convention Center on October 2 under the theme of "Housing for Dignified Living."

The forum is hosted by the city and co-organized by the Suwon City Policy Research Institute, Suwon Sustainable City Foundation, and ICLEI Korea Office. Mayor Yeom Tae-young of Suwon and domestic and international urban experts from Hong Kong, France, and UN-Habitat will participate. The forum will discuss current status of housing policies for realizing inclusive housing welfare worldwide and urban development strategies for discovering the city's sustainable housing policies.

The forum begins at 10 a.m. on October 2 with opening remarks by Mayor Yeom Tae-young and a keynote speech by Professor Kim Su-hyeon (former presidential chief policy officer), a professor at Sejong University, on the theme "Real Estate Hostage Society and a Place to Live."

Following this, under the moderation of Park Yeon-hee, director of ICLEI Korea Office, a policy talk will be held with Mayor Yeom Tae-young, Professor Kim Su-hyeon, and Professor Mee Kam Ng from the Chinese University of Hong Kong on the direction of local government housing policies.

The forum will conclude with thematic sessions including "Housing as a Human Right" and "Housing Rights and Local Government," followed by a closing session on the theme "New Challenges for Sustainable Housing."

In the "Housing as a Human Right" session, theme presentations by Choi Eun-young, director of the Korea Urban Institute, and Professor Mee Kam Ng will be followed by discussions involving participants such as Lee Gang-hoon, head of the Solidarity for Economic Democracy's Civil Hope Division.

In the "Housing Rights and Local Government" session, presentations by Caroline Lucats, head of housing policy at the City of Lille, France, and others will be followed by panel discussions.

A "2019 Sustainable City Ideas Competition Results Sharing Session" jointly organized by the city and the LINC+ project team has also been arranged. Students from Kyung Hee University, Ajou University, and Sungkyunkwan University will participate and generate ideas to solve urban problems in the social, environmental, and economic sectors through a "living lab" approach.

The closing session will involve Lakshman Perera, UN-Habitat Asia-Pacific Regional Expert on Human Settlements, and others, discussing cooperation tasks for housing welfare among central and local governments and civil society.

Anyone interested can participate in the forum. The forum schedule can be found on the website (http://www.suwonhumancity.org).