1st Intl. Conference on Urban Economy held in Tehran

First International Conference on Urban Economy focusing on resistance economy was held in the conference hall of Shahr Bank on May 19.

Many scientific and administrative figures, including CEO of Shahr Bank and president of IUESA Dr. Hossein Mohammadpour Zarandi, Ex Economy minister Dr. Davoud Danesh Jafari, member of planning and budget of the Parliament Dr. Jafar Qaderi, MP of Kerman Mohammadreza Pourebrahimi, Head of Education and Research Commission of the Parliament Mohammad Mahdi Zahedi, the head of traffic police in Tehran Brigadier General Teymoor Hosseini, Technical Deputy of Tehran Municipality Alireza Javid, Secretary General of Asian Mayors Forum Mohammad Khodadi, Deputy Director of the International Centre for Communication and International Affairs Tehran Municipality Gashtasb Mozaffari, Former MP Hasan Ghafourifard and many other figures attended the event.

The conference covered a range of topics including economy of smart city, economy of urban tourism, economy of urban infrastructures, economic culture of city and citizenship education, urban dilemmas, the environment, and air pollution, management of human capital development and urban economy, banking systems, social banking, and urban economy, modeling resistance economy in cities and urban passive defense, pricing urban services, financing, and municipal revenues, management of municipal service, organizations of urban management, and private sector.

Three panels including “resistance economy, Islamic banking, and urban finance”, “economy of smart city”, and “urban infrastructure and smart city” were held on the sidelines of the event.

The book of “social banking with the approach of urban economy and human resources training” written by Dr. Hossein Mohammadpour Zarandi and Seyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi was unveiled at the event.

The ceremony honored pioneer cities in the field of urban economy as well as Iranian and foreign researchers.

During the event, administrative managers from Italy, Georgia, Turkey, South Korea, and Thailand shared experiences with Iranian researchers.

Mohammadpour Zarandi noting that 50 large metropolises hold 7 percent of the world population, have devoted 40 percent of their economic activities to themselves, and metropolises require economic strategy.

Referring to the international conference on urban economy, he said one of the particular issues discussed during the event was developmental dimensions of metropolises.

"There were few metropolises with above a million population last century, however the figures show about 300 metropolitan areas today which have reached that," Pourzarandi said.

He further added there are 37 large cities, each of them with more than 10 million populations around the globe.

Stating that the share of metropolises in GDP is more than their population share, the head of IUESA added for instance, cities’ share of GPD is more than 50 percent in countries with more than 30 percent urbanization.

The head of IUESA said one of the most important reasons of stunning growth and development of metropolises is the emphasis on the production of knowledge and technology.

"These geographical areas absorb people with all of their skills and experiences and provide unique opportunities, skills, and creativities for the development of metropolitan areas," he noted.

LR/PR