Penang Symposium enabled high-level government officials, distinguished academics, knowledgeable experts and urban mayors and managers from large cities to exchange views and experiences on what can work in the arena of green city growth.  About one hundred people - policy makers, NGO representatives, and journalists -  participated in the Symposium

The greening of economic growth is the only way in which serious progress can be made on the long term sustainability agenda, while also capturing the energy of city-led economic growth and the inevitability of further rapid urbanization. The symposium addressed issues of agglomeration economics; public policy to foster greening; the role of the private sector and successful experiences to date; issues of transport, buildings and energy and emerging new technologies; as well as aspects of job creation and finance. The format was the free-flowing and encouraged the maximum exchange of new ideas and recent experience. The organizers were committed to the process of peer to peer learning and to the creative interchange between academics, policymakers and practitioners, both public and private.

The Symposium was supported by the Government of Malaysia, by the World Bank and by the Growth Dialogue.

Images courtesy of: Think City (Malaysia)