Mayoral Conference on the City Prosperity Initiative (CPI) which was hosted by UN-Habitat, World Assembly of Islamic Cities (WAIC) and International City Leaders, took place in Vienna on July 28th, with the support of UCLG-MEWA.
MEWA Section showed huge interest to the meeting. Fatma Şahin, Mayor of Gaziantep, and President of UCLG-MEWA Committee on Culture, Fırat Anlı, representative of Diyarbakır Municipality that is the UCLG-MEWA Co-President and Mehmet Ekinci, Mayor of Eyyübiye participated in the meeting. Fatma Şahin, Mayor of Gaziantep, highlighted the need for using CPI indicators in countries that are in MEWA region in her speech and also underlined the great issues that the region has been going through. Şahin also mentioned the situation of Syrian refugees, and she continued her speech by saying “On one hand we are hosting our Syrian brothers and sisters; on the other hand we are trying to create the best conditions for our citizens.”
Fırat Anlı from Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality which is the Co-President of UCLG-MEWA, took the floor in the second session, and touched on the importance of CPI indicators. Omar Ellouzin from Amman Municipality in Jordan also made a presentation in the conference. In his presentation, Ellouzin emphasized that CPI indicators are universal and should have formability for every region.
Sharam Gilabadi, Deputy Mayor of Tehran Municipality which is the President of UCLG-MEWA, emphasized the need for CPI indicators to be compatible with Islamic cities and gave detailed information in current projects that are aiming to increase prosperity in Iran. Governor of Alfayyum from Egypt also made a presentation in the conference.
Mehmet Duman, UCLG-MEWA Secretary General presented UCLG-MEWA plaques to the representatives of World Assembly of Islamic Cities, UN-Habitat and International City Leaders who organized the conference.
In the closing of the conference, Prabha Khosla from International City Leaders which is one of the organizers of the meeting, presented their appreciation to UCLG-MEWA for its great support to this event and wished for continuation of collaboration between UCLG-MEWA and International City Leaders.